55 hours of rescue efforts go in vain; toddler's lifeless body retrieved from borewell in Telangana
HYDERABAD: Efforts of the Telangana State government to rescue the 14-month-old baby girl, Meena, who was stuck in an abandoned borewell at Chanuvelly village in Chevella mandal of Vikarabad district, went in vain. The little kid died during the rescue operation, which continued for about 55 hours since Thursday evening.
Though a parallel trench was dug along the borewell hole with the help of earth excavating machines, the girl could not be saved. Officials during the wee hours of today recovered the decomposed body of the girl by flushing the entire water out of the borewell, after trying several techniques to retrieve the baby.
Transport minister P Mahender Reddy, who had personally supervised the rescue operations for the past three days, told media that after recovering the body, postmortem examination was conducted immediately and the body has been handed over to the girl's parents.
"We made all possible attempts to save the little kid. But, our efforts went in vain. The State government will extend its support to the family of deceased girl," the minister said.
Later, the family members took the girl's body to their native village in Yalal mandal immediately and last rites were performed there.
Meena, who is fondly called "Chinnari" (little kid), the youngest of two daughters of Yadagiri and Renuka, farm labourers, accidentally fell in an abandoned borewell at Chanuvelly village on Thursday, while playing.
The efforts to rescue the child had started from 8 pm on Thursday using different methods. After the girl fell into the borewell, a parallel trench was dug along the hole with the help of earth excavating machines even as the rocky area and rains had hampered the rescue work. Advanced cameras were deployed to locate the girl and oxygen was continuously pumped into the borewell.
Apart from police, the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel and a team of ONGC officials were also involved in the rescue operation.
The Chevella police on Saturday booked a case against land owner Mallareddy under section 336 of IPC for investigation.