Daijiworld Media Network – Bijapur (SP)

Bijapur, Jun 19: A number of rescue teams rushed to Dyaberi village near Nagatana in the district to rescue four-year-old Akshata, who accidentally slipped into an abandoned borewell in the village at about 7.30 pm on Tuesday June 17.

The teams, which have been digging a parallel pit to the borewell in their attempts to rescue the girl by opening an alternative route to reach her, have faced fresh challenge in the form of hard rock, which has created bottlenecks for the digging work.

The girl had slipped into the borewell and got there about 30 feet below while walking home with her father. Initially, her parents had made fervent efforts to save her, and during this effort, mud had got deposited on the girl. Although care has been taken to supply oxygen to the borewell through pipes since Tuesday night, the concerned are not sure whether the girl is getting benefit out of this procedure, and whether oxygen pipes have reached the girl who is stuck below a huge mound of mud. Teams from Sangli and Pune in Maharashtra have been engaged in determining the depth at which the girl is stuck through their laser cameras, and supplying oxygen to her.

JCBs were pressed into service to dig a parallel hole at about 10 pm on Tuesday, but these machines encountered hard rock some distance beneath the earth. The work of rigging a pit is being directed by an expert team led by Tyagaraj from Hatti Gold Mines in Raichur district. The team wants to insert a slab below the level at which the girl is struck as soon as possible, to ensure that she does not slip down further.

Although Manikantan, a researcher who has invented a robot that helps rescue people who get stuck in borewells, was brought from Bangalore in a helicopter at the instance of district in-charge minister, M B Patil, the experts of National Defence Response Force have advised him to wait till the digging of parallel tunnel is completed.