Rajasthan: Over 70 hrs on, child still stuck in borewell, mother refuses to eat

Three-year-old Chetna has been stuck inside a narrow, 150 ft deep borewell for over 70 hours as rescue operations are still underway to save the girl. Frantic about her daughter’s condition, Dholi Devi has not eaten anything since the tragic accident on Monday.

Chetna fell into the borewell while playing in the farm of her father in Badiyali Dhani under Sarund police station of Kotputli-Behror district.

With each passing moment, hopes of the girl being found alive and well are diminishing as the rescue team was unable to supply any food or water to Chetna.

Dholi Devi and others are constantly praying for her well-being amid the non-stop rescue operation by NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) and SDRF (State Disaster Response Force) teams, assisted by the local police and administration.

Initially, efforts were made to pull the girl out of the borewell with the help of a ring, but that attempt failed. After two days of repeated attempts that fetched no results, a piling was brought to the spot on Wednesday morning and a pit parallel to the borewell was dug.

".... now a horizontal tunnel will be made through which the experts will reach the girl," Sarund SHO Mohammad Imran said.

He said all possible efforts were made to pull out the girl but all the hard work went in vain as the borewell is narrow and the technique could not deliver results. A team of doctors with an ambulance are at the spot. "The rescue operation is likely to conclude today," the SHO said.

Kotputli-Behror district collector Kalpana Agarwal reached the village late on Wednesday night to take stock of the situation. She said the rescue operation had been constantly going on. A lot of preparations had to be done to bring the piling machine to the farm.

Two weeks ago, a five-year-old boy fell into a borewell in Dausa district and the rescue operation lasted over 55 hours. However, the boy tragically lost the battle for life by the time he was taken out.

The menace of children falling into borewells first grabbed national attention in July 2006, when four-year-old Prince fell into a 60-ft borewell at Haldheri village of Kurukshetra district in Haryana, and remained stuck for 48 hours before being rescued, miraculously alive. According to the NDRF, over 40 children have died after falling into borewells in India since 2009.

Rescue operations for children trapped in borewells have a high failure rate, with nearly 70 per cent of attempts failing