21-year-old woman extricated from 540-foot borewell after 33 hours dies in Kutch

What was initially believed to be a hard fought victory after 33 hours of efforts by over 100 personnel, from the police department, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Border Security Force (BSF) and other borewell experts, turned to grief for the people rooting for her recovery.

After getting information, a team from the 6th Battalion (6BN) of the NDRF rushed to the incident site from Vadodara, and started the rescue operation, beginning at 5.30 pm Monday. The woman was extricated at 3.52 pm, following which she was rushed to GK General Hospital in Bhuj, said the officials. SP Kutch (West) Vikas Sunda said, “The woman was declared dead at the hospital after she was taken there following her retrieval”. The woman belonged to a family of farm labourers from Rajasthan.

Assistant Commandant NDRF, Vikram Chaudhary, who was involved in the operation, told The Indian Express, “This is perhaps the first case in the country when an adult has fallen into a borewell. The woman was of a thin, athletic build and about 5 feet in height. The width of the borewell was about 1.2 feet and sufficient for a medium built adult to be trapped”.

He said: “The incident at Kanderai village, according to the local residents, occurred at 5.30am when the woman may have missed the borewell…” Providing details of the operation, the official added that the team lowered iron bars into the borewell with the help of a local truck-crane, usually deployed for digging borewells, to rescue her.

The official said that she was brought out using a “hook technique”, wherein L and J-shaped hooks were lowered into the borewell, fitted on two sides and pressure was applied from below to pull her up, according to news agency PTI.

On rescue efforts, SP Sunda said, “Over 100 people were involved in the rescue efforts including the police, the fire department, civic administration, the Army stationed in Bhuj, BSF personnel who had previously served in NDRF, borewell experts, and the NDRF”.

Speaking on how the woman ended up falling into the borewell, Sunda said, “We have filed an Accidental Death (AD) report at Padhdhar police station. We cannot say for sure that she slipped and fell in the borewell because the space is tight. We are exploring all possibilities and will investigate the matter”.

“We have sent the body for a post-mortem examination to get the time and cause of death. We are also speaking to her family members,” said the SP.