An arduous rescue operation spanning almost 52 hours and involving the army, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF) was unfortunately in vain as only a lifeless body of three-year-old Srishti Kushwaha could be brought out from the 300-feet deep borewell pit in Sehore district.
The body was brought out around 5.30 pm on Thursday evening facilitated by a team from Gujarat that specializes in robotic technique of rescue. This team used robot to seek crucial data on the position and condition of the girl and to decide the best way to bring her out.
Chief executive officer of Sehore Zilla (district) Panchayat, Ashish Tiwari, confirmed to local media persons that Srishti could not be saved despite efforts.
Srishti had fallen in the borewell pit around 1.30 pm on June 6 while playing near her home in Mungaoli village of Sehore. The SDERF team had rushed to the spot and started digging a parallel pit to reach Srishti who initially was trapped at around 29-feet depth. However, as the hours lengthened and the digging machines struck hard rock strata drastically reducing the speed of digging, it was found that the vibration caused by the process had led the little girl to slip down to a depth of about 100 feet, making rescue all the more difficult.
The NDRF had joined the effort and the army was called in on Wednesday morning. The army rescuers tried to bring the kid up by lifting her with a hook but her dress tore and she fell back. Sources said the girl had stopped responding since Tuesday evening itself. As this initial effort by the army failed, the administration decided to call in the Gujarat based robot team that has had a good success rate.
The robot team reached on Thursday evening and the data received using the robot around 10.00 am showed that Srishti had slipped to 150 feet depth and was submerged in muddy water, sources said. The rescue operations were continued based on these data and were hampered due to rain and high velocity winds in the afternoon. Finally, the body was brought out around 5.30 pm, sources added.
The body was rushed to the district hospital in the ambulance present at the spot, where the child was declared brought dead, sources said. The official Twitter account of Sehore district collector (Praveen Kumar Adhaich) just mentioned that Srishti had been brought out of the borewell pit and rushed to hospital. It did not confirm the death of the child.
Sehore superintendent of police Mayank Awasthi told local media persons that the incident was unfortunate and due legal action was being initiated. A criminal offence has been registered against the owner of the land (neighbor of Kushwaha family) where the borewell pit was dug and not covered properly. He said that a case of culpable homicide not amounting to murder (section 304 IPC) will be added to the other sections after the postmortem report of the child is available. Awathi could not be contacted by THE WEEK for comments.
This was the fourth incident of a child falling into a borewell pit in Madhya Pradesh in the past six months. Three of them unfortunately succumbed.
