MP: 7-year-old boy fell in borewell pulled out after 24 hours, could not save his life

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh to the victim's family of Kherkhedi village. Collector Umashankar Bhargava said that an FIR would be lodged against the farm owner who left the borewell open. Open borewells will be closed in the district within a week.

It is worth mentioning that a day before on Tuesday at around 11 am, Lokesh Ahirwar, the seven-year-old son of laborer Dinesh Ahirwar, who was harvesting gram crop in the field in village Kherkhedi, had fallen into a 60-feet deep borewell pit lying open in the neighboring field. To save it, the rescue operation was started from 12.00 noon. Earlier digging was being done with six bulldozers and three Poklen machines. During the night, two additional poklen were called. The child trapped in the borewell was being monitored with the help of night watching cameras. Oxygen was also being delivered continuously.

Despite the rescue operation that lasted for about 24 hours, he could not be saved. Teams of NDRF and SDRF were busy all night to save him. The boy was trapped at a depth of 43 feet in a 60 feet deep borewell. A parallel pit was excavated.

A 50 feet pit was dug till 8 am on Wednesday morning, after which a five feet tunnel was made and the child was taken out. After digging, an ambulance was parked near the tunnel. Child specialist and medical staff were called near the tunnel. By 11.00 am the tunneling work was completed. After this, some members of the team went inside the tunnel and brought the child out at around quarter to 12 in the morning. An ambulance and a team of doctors were ready outside. The child was sent to the Latteri Community Health Center via an ambulance. But the life of the innocent could not be saved. The team of doctors at Lateri Community Health Center declared him brought dead. Collector Umashankar Bhargava has confirmed the death of the child.

Chief Minister Chouhan said through a tweet on Wednesday that it is extremely sad that son Lokesh, who fell in a borewell in Kherkhedi village of Vidisha, could not be saved even after tireless efforts. I pray to God to give peace to the departed soul and strength to the family members to bear this loss. In this critical hour of grief, the government stands with the bereaved family. We have decided that financial assistance of Rs 4 lakh will be given to the victim's family by the state government.

He said that appropriate action will also be taken against the culprits so that such incidents can be stopped in future. The Chief Minister said that the NDRF, SDRF and all the colleagues of the local administration engaged in the rescue operation since yesterday put their best efforts, thanks for this.

Officials present on the spot said that the delay was also due to the rock coming during the digging of the pit parallel to the borewell. The jawans involved in the rescue say that during the digging the child had slipped down in the borewell, so they had to increase the depth of the pit.

Hundreds of people kept awake all night under the open sky

Hundreds of people, including the child's parents, collector Umashankar Bhargava, MLA Umakant Sharma, and people from nearby villages, stayed awake all night at the spot for the welfare of the child trapped in the borewell. There was no arrangement for sleeping at night in the farm. The villagers sat on the ground in groups under the open sky. During the rescue, the expectations of the people kept increasing at the slightest movement. Collector Bhargava also kept taking updates from the rescue team again and again.

After Lokesh fell into the borewell, his father Dinesh, mother Seema Bai, besides grandparents also sat on the side of the borewell and prayed to God for the child's safety. Mother Seema got choked up crying. Father Dinesh said that he had come to cut gram in the field for a daily wage of two hundred rupees. Little did he know that his son would get into such a big trouble.