Child dies after falling in borewell in Punjab

BATALA - A three-year-old girl who fell d into a 200 feet deep, two feet wide borewell near Batala town in Punjab’s Gurdaspur district Wednesday, died Thursday despite an over 20-hour joint rescue operation by the Indian Army and the local authorities.

The child fell into the borewell in Dhira village in the district. Initially local police tried to rescue the child but on realising that they needed more skilled expertise, Indian Army officials were called in.

According to police, Dilrajpreet Kaur accidentally fell into the borewell while playing in the courtyard of her uncle’s house.

“The child had skidded up to 29 feet. Though we tried our best to save the child but all the efforts went futile. We were pumping in oxygen to help the child breathe easily and we were also watching her activities through a camera that was lowered into the borewell,” said Manjit Singh, revenue official (Batala).

Indian Army officials from Tibri cantonment in Gurdaspur district were called on the spot and they were assisted by local police in the rescue operations.

The child was brought out of the borewell around 1.30 p.m. Thursday and she was immediately taken to the civil hospital here.

“Before being brought to the hospital, the child was already dead. It seems that she had died due to suffocation,” said Mahender Singh, senior medical officer of Batala Civil Hospital.

In 2006, five-year-old Prince, who fell into a 53 feet deep and 1.5 feet wide shaft in Shahbad, Haryana, was saved after two days of rescue operations.

Batala town is around 250 km from state capital Chandigarh.