Rescue on to lift boy from borewell in Karnataka

A massive rescue operation is underway to lift a six-year-old boy who fell into a borewell Sunday at a village in north Karnataka.

The tragic incident occurred around 3 p.m. at Sulikere near Badami in this district, about 550.km from the state's capital Bangalore.

"The boy (Thimanna) suddenly fell into the borewell while playing with his brother and friends in the village. His father got it dug up but abandoned as it had no water even at 240 feet depth," district in-charge minister S.R. Patil told reporters at the mishap spot.

According to the victim's friends, however, Thimanna went to the spot to show his cousin where the borewell was dug and how deep it was but plunged into it as it was not fenced and soil around it was slippery.

As the rescue team noticed some movement of the boy's hands at a depth of 160 feet through a powerful closed circuit television (CCTV) camera connected to a laptop, oxygen is being supplied since 4 p.m. through a long pipe to ensure he will breathe and stay alive as long.

"Two earth-moving machines and one drilling machine are digging a well up to 170 feet parallel to the borewell and make a passage to reach the boy for recuing him alive," Patil said camping at the spot with district officials and fire brigade men.

A 10-member expert team from the state-run Hutti Gold Mines in Raichur district, about 200km away from here, rushed to the spot with additional equipment and searchlights for stepping up the rescue operation through the night despite inclement weather and intermittent rain since evening.

"A six-member team of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) is on way from Bangalore by flight to Bellary to reach here on road at the earliest. We have also asked Manje Gowda, a well-known robot expert, to reach the spot for rescuing the boy," Patil, a cabinet minister for IT and biotechnology, said.

An ambulance has been kept ready to rush the boy to the state-run district hospital after retrieving him from the deep hole.

About 2,000 people from Sulikere and surrounding villages in this backward district are camping at the spot, watching the rescue efforts under powerful searchlights.

Meanwhile, hundreds of village folks joined the boy's family in praying for his life in local temples, while his friends are worried over Thimanna's fate.