30 hours on, rescuers yet to reach boy trapped in borewell

BHOPAL: Rescuers worked all through Friday night to try to reach a six-year-old who had fallen into an open borewell in MP's Rewa district in the evening, but 30 hours later, they were yet to catch a glimpse of the boy or hear him.They dug a 42-ft-deep parallel tunnel and struck water at a depth of 40 feet on Saturday. Rescuers believe Mayank Kol is stuck 36 ft-40 ft down the 70-ft borewell in Manika village, 630km from Bhopal and close to the Uttar Pradesh border.What complicates the rescue, apart from unseasonal rainfall, is that the borewell is 'kuccha'. The walls are not cemented, so soil keeps falling off, especially when it rains. An NDRF team from Varanasi (185km away) arrived around 1am on Saturday and is leading the rescue bid, aided by an SDERF team. Rescuers dug a 12-ft trench to connect the rescue tunnel with the borewell, but could not link up because of an alignment issue."We are realigning a horizontal connecting tunnel," Rewa SP Vivek Singh told TOI on Saturday night. He and collector Pratibha Pal have been on site since Friday night, monitoring the rescue. Scores of tribal villagers have gathered around the spot in Manika village.Thankfully so far, rescuers haven't hit rock during their digging, but the nature of the earth has made the task more challenging. "The horizontal tunnel is being dug manually as a precaution since there is risk of soil collapsing," the SP said.BJP MLA from Teonthar, Siddharth Tiwari, who is camping on site said, "There is an issue of alignment. Also, water oozed into the rescue tunnel at a depth of around 40 feet. These two things are causing problems for the rescue teams." CM monitoring Rewa borewell rescue operation, MLA camping on site BJP MLA from Teonthar, Siddharth Tiwari, who is camping on site said, "There is an issue of alignment. Also, water oozed into the rescue tunnel at a depth of around 40 feet. These two things are causing problems for the rescue teams. A parallel tunnel is still being dug. Our chief minister is taking hourly stock of the operation and is in touch with me." Chief minister Mohan Yadav said he was monitoring the situation and is in constant touch with local authorities. "It's a very unfortunate incident. SDERF and district administration are trying to get him out safely," the CM said, adding that he has asked deputy CM Rajendra Shukla to visit the site.Mayank was playing with some friends when he fell into the borewell around 5pm. A CCTV camera was lowered into the tunnel but the boy couldn't be seen. Oxygen is being pumped into the borewell, said an official.