One boy died after falling into an open borewell in Haryana’s Ambala district, even after 21 hours of search and rescue efforts by several emergency agencies. Nirvair Singh, 5, was pulled out in the early hours of yesterday and declared dead at the Civil Hospital in Ambala Cantonment.
Nirvair was rescued from the borewell at 3:40 a.m. and taken by ambulance to the hospital, the family said. Doctors, however, said the child had already died before entering the emergency ward.
The tragic incident occurred at 6:30 a.m. on Tuesday in Dhaneora village where Nirvair had been accompanied by his father Manjit to their agricultural fields. The family had headed to deliver food to the child’s grandfather Karnail Singh, who was working in the fields.
Nirvair was away from the other adults to play. The child then saw an uncovered borewell, family members said, and started throwing soil into it. As he leaned over to look inside, the loose and wet ground around the opening appeared to collapse and he fell into the narrow shaft, one of the family members said.
When they heard the loud noise, the family rushed to the area and tried to save their child. When they were unable to do so they informed the authorities at 7:30 a.m.
A large-scale rescue operation was launched immediately by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Army, and local administration. Senior officials, including the Deputy Commissioner Ajay Singh Tomar, arrived at the site to oversee the operation.
The borewell was nine inches in diameter and about 220 feet deep, making the rescue operation extremely challenging, officials said.
Haryana Cabinet Minister Anil Vij also visited the site on Tuesday evening to monitor the rescue efforts and meet the grieving family.
The district administration advised police to take legal action against the people who left the borewell open. Deputy Commissioner Tomar also advised farmers to ensure that unused borewells were properly sealed, and that such accidents are all preventable with basic safety measures.
The tragedy has once again raised serious concerns over abandoned and open borewells in rural India. It comes just weeks after a four-year-old boy in Punjab’s Hoshiarpur district was rescued alive after being trapped in a newly dug borewell for nearly nine hours.
The incident also brought back memories of a similar rescue in the popular 2006 rescue of five-year-old Prince in Haryana’s Kurukshetra district, who was pulled out alive after nearly 48 hours trapped inside a borewell.
The authorities will investigate as to what happened in Ambala and will strengthen the enforcement of borewell safety laws to prevent other tragedies in future.
(With inputs from PTI)
