Nalanda (Bihar): A four-year-old boy who had fallen into a borewell earlier Sunday was rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel. The boy, Shivam Kumar, was conscious when rescued and was rushed to Bhagwan Mahavir Institute of Medical Science, Pawapuri, Nalanda. He was reported to be in a stable condition.
Media reports suggested the boy was stuck in the borewell for about eight hours.
“Every borewell tragedy throws up a unique challenge. In this case, we established communication between the child and his parents with the help of cameras,” Suneet Kumar Singh, commander of the NDRF 9th battalion which was involved in the rescue operation, told ThePrint.
The accident occurred around 9 am when Shivam was accompanying his mother, Renu Devi, to a farm where she worked in their native village of Kul Fatehpur, Singh said.
The field had a borewell which was concealed under palm leaves and Shivam fell into it, he added. He also said that the boy’s mother immediately rushed home and informed her husband who went on to alert the authorities who pressed the NDRF into service.
Fortunately, instead of dropping all the way down to the bottom, which had a diameter of 18 inches, the boy was trapped at a depth of around 50 feet, immersed waist down in rainwater that had accumulated there, Singh said.
The rescue operation, which involved a 25-member team, began at 11 am. Oxygen was supplied to the child with the help of a pipe and the personnel also dangled a CCTV camera into the pit to monitor the child.
The NDRF also asked the district administration to start digging a parallel pit as a last resort.
After their attempts to help the child out with a rope failed, the rescuers dropped a device into the pit which clasped the boy’s legs and helped pull him out.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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