Little Chinnari slipped further deep into the borewell on Friday, aggravating her family’s agony and making the multiple rescue operations, which began here on Thursday night, even more challenging.
The 18-month-old fell into a 40-feet-deep borewell at a field in Ekkareddyguda village, 60 km from Hyderabad, where her labourer parents were working, around 7 p.m. on Thursday.
NDRF arrives
Swiftly responding to the situation, the State Government pressed into service personnel from all connected wings while teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) too arrived at the site. Earth-moving machines began digging but the pace slowed down because of the rocky terrain. Oxygen was continuously pumped into the borewell.
The girl’s cries echoed from the borewell through the night.
“It was clear that till 9 a.m., the girl was alive as her hand was moving,” NDRF Assistant Commandant D.N. Singh said.
A borewell rescue robot, which has two clamps that can close around an object and pull it out, was sent in. The robot could clasp the girl's hand but it repeatedly slipped when pulled up.
“Her second hand was visible but only up to wrist. Apparently, she got stuck in the mud till neck,” Cyberabad Police Commissioner Sandeep Sandilya said. He, along with Rangareddy Collector Raghunandan Rao and Transport Minister P. Mahender Reddy camped at the site and oversaw rescue operations.
As these attempts failed, the policemen began pulling up the water motor which was nearly 450-feet deep. Actually, the borewell was drilled more than a year ago but was closed by filling mud as water was not found.
But due to continuous rains for the past few days, mud filled in the borewell apparently got eroded and water accumulated in it. “Three days ago, the land owner had fixed a small motor to pump out water and use it,” a villager said.
Unaware of the open borewell, the girl apparently stepped onto it while playing around and slipped inside.
Policemen hoped that the girl would come up automatically when the water motor beneath her is pulled upwards. However, the motor came out and not the child. Even as officials racked up their brains on their next moves, the girl slipped further deep.
“This is confirmed as the camera could not locate her. Hence, the NDRF personnel stopped their work,” the Commissioner said. Meanwhile, it started raining heavily after 3 p.m., further hampering the rescue operations.
