Bhubaneswar/ Sambalpur (Odisha), Dec 1: An infant was found stuck in an abandoned bore well in Odisha’s Sambalpur district on Tuesday evening, as the state government launched a rescue operation, officials said. Six hours passed after the baby was spotted in the around 20-foot-deep bore well at Laripali village in Rengali area and oxygen is being supplied into it.
The baby, apparently newly born, has no claimant, police said.
“The infant is alive. The baby had stopped crying for some time. Its cries were heard again after a 100-watt electric bulb was lowered into the bore well for light as well to keep the baby warm,” said Dr Subham Singha, who is part of the rescue team.
An ambulance has been kept ready to take the baby to hospital as soon as it is recovered from the bore-well.
Director General, Fire Service, Dr Sudhansu Sarangi, said that a victim location camera has been lowered into the bore well to trace the location of the baby.
“This camera will help us find a place to cut the iron pipe to retrieve the baby from the bore well,” he said.
The camera was sent from Bhubaneswar to Jharsuguda airport on a special flight.
The fire service personnel have dug a 17-foot pit parallel to the bore well. The baby is stuck at about 13 feet below, Sarangi said.
Local people came to know about the presence of the child inside the bore well after hearing cries at around 3.30 pm, police said.
The abandoned bore-well is located in a forest close to the village. The police said it was not known how the infant got into the well.
Locals suspect that the infant might have been dumped there by someone.
Besides the police and fire services personnel, those belonging to the Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force and the NDRF were also there to help in the rescue operation.
Five-year-old dies
in Madhya Pradesh
A five-year-old boy died after falling into a borewell in Alirajpur district of Madhya Pradesh on Tuesday, police said.
The boy was rescued from the borewell shaft but declared dead at the hospital, district’s Superintendent of Police (SP) Rajesh Vyas told PTI in the evening. The child fell into the open shaft of a borewell at Khandala Davri village, about 20 km from the district headquarters, around 4.30 pm, Vyas said.
He was stuck at a depth of around 20 feet, the SP said. A parallel pit was dug and connected with the borewell shaft to rescue the boy, but he died even though the rescuers succeeded in bringing him out.
“We are registering a case against the borewell owner and the boring machine operator who dug the shaft and left it open,” the SP said.
The boring machine too will be seized as a punitive measure, he added. (PTI)
