TIRUCHY: The failure of 80 hour-long rescue operation to save two-year-old Sujith Wilson from a 600-feet borewell in Nadukattupatti village of Tiruchy district has brought to light the urgent need for an action plan to respond to such situations.
Revenue officials and Fire and Rescue personnel were the first responders to arrive at the spot around 5:45 pm on Friday when the child was at a depth of 18 feet. However, F&R men at the scene told Express that they had no specific training in handling borewell rescues. Though they started digging a hole parallel to the borewell using earthmovers, the effort had to be given up after hitting rock bed. Later, private earthmovers were deployed to dig this hole, which experts at the scene said, caused vibrations that pushed the child further down.
The NDRF SOP does mention digging of the parallel hole as an option but notes there are difficulties involved in this and geological features and stability of borewell need to be taken into consideration. It warns against allowing heavy machinery to work at full power. The NDRF SOP also lists other methods adopted such as magic ball, rope tying and umbrella method.
Once rock bed was hit, officials roped in several independent experts to try out their custom equipment. Virtually all of these worked on a principle of using a rope to tie the child’s hands and pull him out. The State, however, did not appear to have its own SOP and the experts were called in and supervised by ministers present at the on the first day. Notably, geologists were brought in to advise the rescue teams only on Sunday, nearly two days after the child was stuck.
It was only after all attempts by independent experts failed that the State put in a requisition to the NDRF at 3: 49 am on Saturday. The requisition was put in by Commissioner of Revenue Administration and Revenue Secretary J Radhakrishnan, indicating that the revenue department was now in charge of operations. NDRF officials at Arakkonam claimed the team was ready by 4: 30 am, they reached Tiruchy only at 12: 30pm on Saturday. By this time the child had slipped to 68 feet.
Members of the team told Express that they were only equipped to attempt rescues to a depth of 30feet. The team also said they had limited training to carry out such rescues and was not carrying all the equipment listed in the agency’s SOP. Meanwhile, without any specialized training, the Fire and Rescue team was on standby.
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By the end of Saturday, with all measures failing and the child slipping further to 88feet, State returned to the original plan of digging a parallel hole and sending personnel down to manually and bring the child out.
Meanwhile, some of the independent experts, as well as the NDRF personnel, opined that the original attempt to dig a parallel hole had been a mistake and could have been avoided, especially as it was led by a team of officials with neither experience not training in such rescues. Vibrations from the digging had sent the child further down the well and made accessing him harder.
Experts who assisted in the rescue said he was stuck with his hands above his head in such a way that he could not see anything except darkness. He could not even lift his head upward. The boy’s shoulders were also not seen in the robotic camera sent down on Friday. This is why they thought the rope method would be best.
“After several attempts, somehow we were able to tie the ropes to his both hands. But while we were pulling him up, the ropes came off due to the sweat caused by humidity inside. This was a major drawback in our rescue work,” Daniel from Tiruchy, who has handled six such cases before, said.