Punjab: Toddler stuck in borewell, operation underway

A rescue operation is underway to save two-year-old Fatehvir Singh, who fell into a 150-feet-deep borewell in Sangrur district of Punjab. A 26-member team of NDRF is engaged in the rescue operation. The child is expected to be rescued today. He has been stuck in the borewell for over 55 hours.

Chandigarh: Large-scale rescue operation continued on Saturday to pull out a two-year-old boy who fell into an over 150-foot-deep borewell in Punjab's Sangrur district.

Toddler stuck in borewell, operation underway

Authorities are expecting to retrieve the toddler, Fatehvir Singh, by early Sunday morning.

With Fatehvir remaining unconscious, family members and villagers were offering prayers for the safety of the child, who has been stuck in the borewell for over 55 hours now.

Toddler stuck in borewell, operation underway

Fatehvir, who is the only child of his parents and would turn three next week, fell into the unused borewell in a field when he was playing near his house around 4.00 pm on Thursday, officials said.

The borewell was covered with a cloth and the boy accidentally stepped onto it. His mother tried to rescue him, but failed. The toddler is stuck around 125-feet deep in the borewell, which is seven inches wide.

A team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Army experts, assisted by the police, civil authorities, villagers and volunteers, were carrying out the rescue operation.

A parallel borewell is being dug by installing reinforced cement concrete (RCC) pipes of 36 inches in diameter to retrieve the toddler, officials said.

Till now, rescuers managed to dig around 105-foot-deep parallel borewell by taking out soil manually.

"We have reached around 105-feet deep as of now and another about 20 feet still remains to be dug up. We are expecting if all goes as per schedule, we should be able to retrieve child by 5 am," district Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori told reporters over phone.

After the rescuers managed to reach the depth of 125 feet where Singh is stuck, the NDRF will carry out the final phase of rescue operation to rescue child.

Thori said the child was unconscious and a team of doctors were on the standby at the site to provide best medical assistance whenever he is taken out of the borewell.

An ambulance equipped with a ventilator has also been stationed at the site.

Earlier, a team of NDRF had tried to pull out the child with the help of rope, but could not succeed.

Oxygen was being supplied to the child and authorities are monitoring his condition through camera, officials added. A team of 26 members of the NDRF were engaged in the rescue operation.

The incident has again brought to fore the dangers posed by uncovered borewells, which have turned into death traps for children.

In March, an 18-month-old boy was rescued from a borewell in Haryana's Hisar district, two days after he had fallen into it.

In 2006, a massive operation was launched to rescue five-year-old Prince, who had fallen into a borewell in a village in Kurukshetra. He was pulled out safely nearly 48 hours later.

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