Hyderabad: The hopes of the parents of two-year-old Shanvi to see their only child rescued alive vanished after her body was recovered from the borewell at 3.30 am on Tuesday.
A rock in the path of the pit that was dug parallel to the borewell blocked the rescue operation for some time. When the rescue teams reached Shanvi after drilling through the rock she was unconscious. Shanvi was rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her dead on arrival. A case of negligence was registered against landowner K. Anjaiah and the rig owner who dug the well.
Shanvi was the only daughter of Mr Veeraswamy and Ms Sushmita who had come to work at the lemon orchard. While they were repairing an old well the toddler followed her mother who went to answer nature’s call and fell into the open borewell which had been dug a week ago but was abandoned.
Shanvi’s mother heard her cries and alerted her husband and other villagers, who informed the police. By the time the police arrived the villagers had begun to dig a pit close to the borewell. Two proclain machines were pressed into service and oxygen was also pumped into the borewell.
A parallel pit was dug with the help of both machines. The machines reached 20 feet without any trouble. Meanwhile, doctors monitored her condition using cable cameras. The visuals showed Shanvi waving her hands. The operation went smoothly till a rock blocked the parallel pit, halting the rescue operation at around 10.30 pm on Monday.
The rock was removed and the operation resumed after a couple of hours. Around 3.30 am on Tuesday the rescue teams drilled a hole into the borewell. “By the time we reached her she was unconscious. She was rushed to the Nakrekal hospital where doctors declared her dead,” said inspector P. Praveen Kumar Reddy.
Police suspects that the mud that fell in the borewell when the villagers initially tried to dig a pit had covered her. “She was covered half feet in mud. This hit her survival chances,” the inspector said.
