Hubli: Anxiety among parents, family members and villagers is growing as the rescue operation to save the 6-year old boy Tammanna Hatti, who fell into a borewell, moves into the second day. Hopes of the ‘borewell robot’ retrieving the boy faded on Monday.
Manje Gowda, who designed an indigenous robot for borewell rescues, arrived in Sulikeri village from Mandya, but his contraption couldn’t reach the trapped boy as the diameter of the robot was wider than the hole of the borewell after it reached 100 feet. The administration stopped the robot after two attempts as there was a risk of soil collapsing on the boy. “There is chance of dislodging the soil on to the boy if I try to push the robot harder into the borewell. So I will have to try and reduce the diameter of the robot after it reaches deep into the trench”, Manje Gowda said.
Rescue teams have been struggling to bring up the boy, with digging around the 160-feet-deep-well becoming a herculean task.
Meanwhile, in another attempt to save the boy, an expert team of National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) is trying to drop a long rope with a knot that will grip the boy’s wrists. This would enable them to slowly lift up the boy within a few hours. But the rescuers are struggling to lift the boy because one hand seems trapped in the soil, though the other is visible on the camera. “We are finding it difficult to tie the knot to both his hands due to the soil on it. The boy has dropped 160 feet deep and this has also made our rescue operation cumbersome,” said NDRF expert Basavaraj Hiremath.
All this while, the rescue team of Hatti Gold Mines of Raichur district has continued to dig a parallel pit in attempt to rescue the boy. But, they had dug an unsatisfactory 60-70 feet till Monday evening. The officials admitted that it would take another 2-3 days to reach the boy. “We have tried to rescue children from open borewells by digging maximum 60-80 feet deep trenches in earlier incidents. But digging 160 feet is a time-consuming process and it is a record in all our rescue operations”, said Srishail, head of the rescue team.
The administration has pressed into service over half-a-dozen earth movers to dig a parallel borewell. The police officials and other members involved in rescue operations are facing an enormously difficult task of controlling the crowds.
Also Read: Boy falls into borewell... this time in Bagalkot, Karnataka
Officials Suspended
The government has suspended Sulikeri panchayat development officer (PDO) and assistant executive engineer of Badami Taluk Panchayat on charges of dereliction of duty over the incident of the 6-year old boy falling into the open borewell on Sunday.
The minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj H K Patil issued the order on Monday
District in-charge minister S R Patil, local legislators and officials have been camping at the venue to supervise the rescue operation.
