A 40-member contingent of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) 10th Battalion based in Mangalagiri played a key role in saving the child who slipped into a borewell near Vinukonda.
“It was a meticulous operation. The district administration, police, medical teams, fire and revenue officials and the locals helped us in bringing out the boy after nearly 12 hours,” said Commandant Sk. Zahid Khan.
He told The Hindu that the boy was located with the help of improvised cameras and the team quickly got into a mission mode using drilling and chipping machines, specialised ropes and other paraphernalia.
“The boy survived because of the continuous supply of oxygen into the narrow hole,” observed Deputy Commandant M. Madhusudan Reddy, who expressed satisfaction that tiny tot was brought out unhurt.
Assistant Commandant D.N. Singh recalled: “We dug a pit parallel to the ore well. A boulder hampered our operation. But, we made the way to the boy by slightly changing the direction of digging.”
The NDRF team won the appreciation of Director-General Sanjay Kumar and Inspector-General L. Joseph Ravi.
The borewell was about 200 foot deep but it was blocked at the 15-foot mark, which made the boy’s rescue possible, the NDRF personnel said with a sigh of relief.
