Rescue operation to recover child from Punjab borewell still underway

Lack of expertise and technical snags one after another were blamed for the delay in the massive rescue operation that entered its fifth day on Monday.

Sangrur: A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) on Monday continued its rescue operation to retrieve a two-year-old boy who had been trapped in a 150-foot-deep abandoned borewell in a village near this Punjab's town. There was no official confirmation about the health of the child, Fatehveer Singh, who turned three on Monday. Lack of expertise and technical snags one after another were blamed for the delay in the massive rescue operation that entered its fifth day on Monday. Special teams have been working day and night in a tunnel that was dug parallel to the abandoned borewell. The newly-laid 36-inch-diameter parallel shaft was used to make passage to the child who was stuck at a depth of 115 feet in the borewell that has a nine-inch diameter. A team of doctors and ambulances were stationed at the spot to provide emergency aid. A movement in the child's body was noticed at 5 a.m. on Saturday, almost 40 hours after the incident. After that there was no movement in his body. Adequate supply of oxygen inside the well is being provided and a camera is being used to monitor the child's condition. The child stumbled into the borewell that was covered with cement bags at around 4 p.m. on June 6, according to his mother Gagandeep Kaur. The rescue team, comprising 26 members of the NDRF and the Indian Army with district administration staff, has been involved in the day-and-night operation at Bhagwanpura in Sunam subdivision, some 15 kms from district headquarters at Sangrur. Followers of Sirsa-based Dera Sacha Sauda were also involved in the rescue operation. The NDRF said this is one of the most complex rescue operations undertaken in the country. The borewell had been abandoned for over seven years. This was the second such incident in the area in less than three months. On March 22, a one-and-a-half-year-old boy, who fell into a 70-foot narrow borewell in Haryana's Hisar district, was rescued after a 48-hour operation. In July 2006, Army engineers in Haryana's Kurukshetra town had rescued a boy trapped in a 60-foot well for two days.