Jaipur: In perhaps one of the longest rescue operations in Rajasthan, efforts to pull out a three-year-old girl from of a 150-foot deep borewell in Kotputli-Behror district entered the ninth day on Tuesday. With hours ticking by inexorably and hopes for her survival fading, rescuers are racing against time to pull out Chetna, who fell into the borewell on December 23 while playing in her father's farm at Badiyali Dhani in the district.
Till Monday, the rescue teams of NDRF and SDRF were hopeful of completing the operation and reaching the girl, but layers of sedimentary rock have compounded the drilling work. "Digging eight feet of soil is not a big deal. But we cannot effect a blast if there is a stone. Due to the hard rock, we are facing difficulty in drilling. The work has not stopped for a minute ever since it started," NDRF team in-charge Yogesh Meena told reporters on Tuesday.
On Monday, District Collector Kalpana Agarwal met the girl's family and explained to them the problems being faced in carrying out the rescue operation. She told them that experts are being roped in to help in the rescue efforts, but since it is a very complicated operation, it is taking longer time.
The family members had earlier accused the district administration of being negligent. Initially, the rescuers tried to pull out the girl using an iron ring attached to a rope, but all attempts failed. After two days of repeated attempts that fetched no results, a piling machine was brought to the spot last Wednesday and a parallel pit was dug.
On Saturday, a video of a Chetna's mother Dholi Devi surfaced in which she could be seen pleading with folded hands to rescue her daughter. "It's been six days... My daughter is hungry and thirsty. What if she were collector madam's child? Would she let her be there for so long? Please get my daughter out as soon as possible," she pleaded.
However, with each passing moment, the hopes to save the toddler is diminishing as the rescue team has been unable to supply food or water to Chetna. Around two weeks back, a five-year-old boy fell into a borewell in Dausa district where the rescue operation lasted for more than 55 hours. However, the boy lost the battle for life by the time he was taken out.
