A nine-year-old boy died after falling into a 1,050-foot-deep borewell in Rajasthan’s Phalodi district, despite a 39-hour rescue operation involving the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and local administration.
The child was pulled out around 3.30 am on Saturday and taken to a government hospital in Lohawat, where doctors declared him dead on arrival.
Police officers said that farmer Pancharam Bhil’s son accidentally fell into an open borewell while playing near his family’s agricultural field on Thursday in Nosar village under the Lohawat region**.**
The borewell pump had a technical fault and was removed for repairs, leaving the shaft open, an officer said.
A joint rescue operation continued through Thursday and Friday before concluding early Saturday. Rescuers faced several challenges, including the extreme depth of the borewell, large rocks obstructing access to the child and water accumulation inside the shaft, the officer said.
Efforts were also made to dig a parallel shaft using heavy machinery, but unstable soil and technical difficulties slowed the operation, he added.
District collector Ankit Kumar Singh and Superintendent of Police (SP) Aditya Kakde closely monitored the rescue efforts.
The tragedy comes less than two months after a similar incident in Alwar district. On August 31, a nine-year-old boy fell into an open borewell while attempting to retrieve a kite in Butoli village under the Barodamev area. However, rescue teams managed to bring him out safely after a five-hour operation.