15 hours on, even as rescue operations are underway to save 2-year-old Sujith, who fell into an abandoned borewell in Tamil Nadu’s Trichy district on Friday evening, reports say the boy has slipped further down to a depth of 70 feet into the narrow borewell.
Speaking to TNM, Trichy Superintendent of Police Zia Ul Haq stated that rescue operations are on and NDRF teams are being rushed to the spot from Chennai and will soon start aiding the rescue operations.
Reports quoted state health minister C Vijayabhaskar, who is at the spot and is overseeing rescue operations, saying that no sound has been heard from the boy since 5 am. However, Trichy Superintendent told TNM that this could be because the child might be tired after all this time and could be slipping down. “All the equipment has come. All the teams are coming and they’ve done successful operations in the past,” he reassured.
The boy has been given a supply of oxygen and rescue officials have helped Sujith’s family speak to him and reassure him. Specially designed equipment is being brought in from Madurai to help rescue the child.
Officials are also enlisting the help of Manikandan, an innovator from Kovilpatti who has made a robotic device with cameras which is touted to save children who are stuck in borewell pipes.
On Friday around 5.30 pm, Sujith was playing near the abandoned borewell on his father's property when he slipped and fell inside. Visuals from the scene show just the boy’s head and hands inside the narrow shaft of the borewell.
Principal Secretary Dr J Radhakrishnan explained that one out of two methods would be used to help rescue the boy. In the first, a parallel tunnel would be dug and a transverse path would be created to move the boy while in the other, special equipment such as robotic arms would be used to remove the boy from the well.
Elaborating on the rescue operation, the SP said that digging a hole parallel to the borewell is proving to be difficult since there is a layer of hard rock under the ground.
As the hours passed by, social media was filled with prayers and messages for the boy and the hashtag #SaveSujith was trending throughout the night.