A three-year-old boy who accidentally fell into an uncovered 120-feet deep borewell on Wednesday died there on the morning of Thursday, 28 May.
According to a News18 report, the body was recovered from a depth of 25-feet.
The child’s body was retrieved at around 4 am on Thursday after an arduous 10-hour-long rescue operation that involved multiple agencies, the police said , reported PTI.
The deceased boy has been identified as Sai Vardhan. The incident took place at around 5 pm on Wednesday in Pochampally village, Medak district, approximately 100 kilometres from Hyderabad, reported The News Minute.
As part of the rescue efforts, the authorities dug a trench running parallel to the borewell using earth excavating machinery and subsequently supplied oxygen into the hole.
However, to the dismay of many, the child’s lifeless body was found stuck in the borewell at a depth of 25-feet, the cops added.
“He died a while before we evacuated him, most likely due to the mud that covered him from the top sealing off necessary oxygen supply.”Medak District Superintendent of Police Chandana Deepti to PTI
According to local reports, Sai Vardhan's grandfather, Bhikshapathi had dug up three borewells in his agricultural land.
The boy's father, Govardhan, told media that in the past week, they dug up three borewells but none of them had any water. So they decided to close them.
As per the Medak Collector, K Dharma Reddy, the three borewells were dug without permission and necessary action will be taken.
“The boy was adamant and insisted on coming to the site while we were closing the borewells. He stood on the mound on the borewells and slipped into it,” Govardhan said. The boy’s father and mother, Naveena, were around when the incident happened. “It happened in front of our eyes,” Govardhan added.
The boy was a native of Patancheru in Sangareddy district. He had gone to his grandfather's place to spend his summer vacation, NTV reported.
Authorities, including Medak Superintendent of Police, rushed to the spot post the incident. As the evening set in, officials had set up lights to rescue the 3-year-old.
Last year, a two-year-old boy Sujith had fallen down an abandoned borewell in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy district. The boy had slipped down as far as 88 feet into the deep borewell. The nation had prayed for his safe rescue, with the hashtag #SaveSujith trending on social media. However, after a three-day-long rescue operation, the boy’s mortal remains were brought out.
In 2017, in a similar incident, a two-year-old girl Veena had fallen into a 450-feet borewell and couldn't be rescued despite efforts by the NDRF and other agencies. The rescue operation was carried out for nearly 60-hours, and despite supplying oxygen, the two-year-old couldn't survive. Her decomposed body was later retrieved.
(With inputs from The News Minute, News 18 and PTI)
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