18-month-old rescued from borewell in MP after nearly 10 hours of efforts

A one-and-a-half-year-old girl, who had fallen into a borewell in Doni village of Madhya Pradesh's Chhatarpur district, was rescued in the wee hours of Friday, in an operation that lasted nearly 10 hours, a senior official said.

The girl, Divyanshi, had slipped into the borewell around 3 pm on Thursday and was rescued at 12.47 am on Friday, the official said.

The incident had occurred when the child was playing in her father's agriculture field in the village. Teams of the district administration and Army immediately began rescue operations to save the girl struck at a depth of 13 feet in Doni village, about 32 km from Chhatarpur district headquarters.

"The girl was rescued from the borewell at 12.47 am. She was handed over to her parents and is safe. A team of doctors is monitoring her," Chhatarpur collector Sandeep G R said.

A parallel 18 feet deep pit was dug and later a six-feet long tunnel was carved to rescue her safely, the collector said.

Team of homeguards from Chhatarpur and Gwalior, Army, State Disaster Emergency Response Force (SDERF), police and district administration officials, including health staff, played a key role in rescuing the child safely.