On Monday, more than 200 men were at work, trying to reach Rahul. Rahul remains stuck 60-ft borewell pit since Friday. Their challenges range from groundwater level, unstable rocks, snakes and scorpions hiding in crevices, and inclement weather.
Monday morning in Chhattisgarh’s Piharid village began with all villagers switching on their borewells and operating hand pumps continuously — to draw out water from a pit that was dug for a borewell. Their aim: to rescue a 10-year-old boy stuck for the last more than 75 hours.
On Friday, when Piharid residents Lala Ram Sahu and wife Geeta Sahu returned home, they found their eldest son Rahul missing. Rahul is deaf and mute, and also has developmental disabilities. After looking for long, they eventually realised he had fallen down a pit that was dug for borewell. Sahu said the pit was dug a few days ago. It was left with the mouth open. “We dug up to 80 feet but there was very little water. I had planned on getting it covered when we dug another hole,” the worried father said.
Earlier, district and state-level rescue teams considered pulling him. They did by throwing down a rope but found it difficult to communicate the plan. A team of Army and NDRF are also working at the spot.While the plan to use robot had to be shelved after the machines didn’t work on wet, slippery soil, rescue teams from SECL, SAIL, BALCO and NTPC set about testing soil strength, leakage of gases and other possible flaws.