'Rescuers had tears of joy when they finally saw through tunnel hole the boy trapped in borewell'

The battalions unit stationed in the RRC centre Bhilai for looking after Chhattisgarh, was called up for the operation.An official of the NDRF, whose personnel were at the forefront of the rescue operation to save Rahul Sahu who fell into the borewell in the backyard of his house, said tears rolled down the eyes of the rescuers when they saw the minor through a tunnel hole of a parallel pit.

It was a routine evening on June 10 after the day's training exercise at the NDRF's regional response center (RRC) in Bhilai town of Chhattisgarh.

While some disaster response personnel were resting, some others were busy on their phones when suddenly their commanding officer got a call from a police officer in the Janjgir-Champa district. It was not a usual call for a response to natural calamities like floods, but for the rescue of an 11-year-old boy who fell into an unused borewell in Pihrid village of the district, located over 250 km from Bhilai.

The third battalion of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), headquartered in Mundali, Cuttack (Odisha) played a vital role in the rescue of the child from the borewell which was accomplished on Tuesday night after 104 hours he fell into it. The battalion's unit stationed in the RRC center Bhilai for looking after Chhattisgarh was called up for the operation.

An official of the NDRF, whose personnel were at the forefront of the rescue operation to save Rahul Sahu who fell into the borewell in the backyard of his house, said tears rolled down the eyes of the rescuers when they saw the minor through a tunnel hole of a parallel pit. Being stuck at a depth of around 60 feet below the surface, he was finally rescued late Tuesday night.

Talking to PTI on Wednesday, the Inspector of the battalion in the Bhilai's center, Mahabir Mohanty said, ''I got a call from a police officer from Janjgir-Champa at 5.35 pm on June 10, who sought our help to evacuate a child from the borewell.'' The squad of 22 personnel headed by Mohanty immediately packed their equipment and left for the site at around 6 pm. Ten others joined later. On the way to the site, Mohanty did not waste any time and got connected via a video call with the district administration and police officials, who were at the spot, and briefed them about the standard operating procedures (SOPs). ''I asked the officials on a video call to first clear the crowd from the spot and then insert an oxygen supply pipe and a light inside the borewell. I also told the official to tell the child's family members to keep talking to the boy from the mouth of the borewell for moral support,'' he said.

''We reached the spot around 11 pm (on Friday) and launched our operation. Meanwhile, the local administration had arranged the required machinery and a team of SDRF had also reached there,'' he said.

The NDRF joined the operation. A CCTV camera and speaker were inserted inside the borewell to monitor the child and give commands to him. There was water inside the borewell, so wasting no time the NDRF asked the officials to tell villagers to switch on their borewells to maintain the groundwater level, he said.

The child being mentally weak was a major challenge before the rescuers as he was not responding properly to our commands. Otherwise, he could have been pulled up using a rope with a hook attached to it, he said.

''Another thing that worried us was the presence of a snake and scorpion inside the borewell. It was visible on the monitor connected to the camera. We informed the medical team stationed there about it, which gave necessary medicines to the child through ORS,'' he said. The child was provided bananas and ORS using a rope, he said.

A parallel pit, around 75 feet deep, was dug nearby borewell and then a 20 feet long horizontal tunnel was created to reach the child, he said.

''The rescuers did not even sleep or take bath. They continued working during the 102-hour-long rescue operation. It was expectations of the public who were standing there day and night that encouraged us to work relentlessly,'' he said. ''Tears rolled down the eyes of the rescuers as soon as they saw the child through a hole in the last phase of the tunnel creation. We thought as if it was our child and from the last five days we were trying to save him,'' 40-year-old Mohanty said, adding that he has been getting greeting calls from all over the country. ''No such incident has been earlier reported in Chhattisgarh and Odisha. Though we are well-trained in handling all kinds of emergencies, for the first time my team did such an operation,'' Mohanty said.

The Army jawans and a 12-member team from SECL's Gevra, Kusmunda, and Manendragarh coal mines also assisted in the rescue operations. The rescuers faced a major challenge in creating a tunnel while cutting the undersurface hard dolomite rocks. Generally in mining activity blasting is used to break hard rocks but in this case, it was not possible keeping in view the safety of the child. Initially, we used a trolley-mounted drilling machine and later the excavation was done both with hand drilling machines and manually while maintaining maximum precaution, he said.

Sarpanch of Pihrid village Kiran Kumar Dahariya, said that although the administration did not ask for any kind of major support from them, the villagers voluntarily arranged two times meals and breakfast for the rescuers during the operation.