Toddler falls into borewell in Gujarat’s Amreli district, rescue operations on

The village sarpanch, who was at the spot, said the cries of the girl were audible from the borewell till around 3 pm. “They are no longer audible now. However, a rescue team from Rajula is about to reach with a robot which we are hoping will help pull the girl out of the borewell,” said Kalu Sabhaya, the sarpanch of the village.

The Suragpura village is around 15 km northeast of Amreli town. The girl, identified as Aarvi, is the daughter of Karan Amarliyar, a tribal from Boriyala village in Dahod district’s Garbada taluka in eastern Gujarat. Amarliyar is a tribal farm labourer, said officials.

According to the police, the agricultural field where the incident happened belongs to one Bhanu Kakadiya, a farmer of Suragpura. Tribal labourers have been tilling his land for the last one month.

“The girl is stuck at a depth of approximately 50 feet. A team of the Amreli fire brigade has reached the spot and launched a rescue operation. A health department team has also reached the spot and are pumping oxygen into the borewell,” the SP said. He added, “We have also sought help from the NDRF (National Disaster Relief Force) in the rescue operation.”

Amreli district collector Ajay Dahiya told The Indian Express that a team of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONCG) from Vadodara were on their way to Amreli to join the rescue operation. “We contacted the NDRF and the ONGC through the state emergency operation centre.  While the teams arrive, rescuers are trying to extract the girl with the help of a computer-controlled robotic arm.”

Kalu Sabhaya, sarpanch of Suragpura, said, “The labourers were busy sowing cotton in the field when the children apparently removed a stone placed as a cap on the borewell and the little girl either climbed down into the borewell or fell in it accidentally.”

Mukesh Bhuriya, a fellow labourer from Dahod working on Kakadiya’s farm said they came to know about the missing girl around noon. “We heard the cries of three children. We rushed to the spot and found out Aarvi was missing. The children told us that she had fallen into the borewell,” Bhuriya said, adding, “We heard Aarvi’s cries from the borewell and called for help.”

Incidentally, scores of tribals from eastern Gujarat, western Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra come to Saurashtra region of Gujarat to work as agricultural labourers. Amreli district in Saurashtra sees the arrival of such labourers in huge numbers every monsoon.