Rescuers yet to reach boy trapped in Betul borewell

BHOPAL: More than 72 hours on, around 300 personnel -police, rescue workers, administration officials- are working tirelessly, fighting their fatigue to rescue the 6-year-old kid who fell into a borewell late on December 6, evening. Still a little less than half the horizontal tunnel is left to be dug as rescue works were on.
Tanmay, who is stuck at a depth of around 45 feet, stopped responding around 10pm on December 6, say sources, adding that he has been in the same position, unmoving.Rescue teams continue to pump oxygen and warm air into the borewell in Mandvi village, around 200km south of Bhopal.
They have excavated a deep pit parallel to the borewell and 10 feet apart and are trying to link the two to reach Tanmay.
“The vertical parallel tunnel was dug using 3 JCB and 3 poclain machines and work for digging the horizontal tunnel to connect it with the borewell is going on.
But there is stone layer and as machines cannot be used to dig the horizontal tunnel, rescue teams are digging the tunnel manually. There is little space down there, hence only 5-6 personnel are being deployed in batches for the digging. Entire police staff, rescue teams, senior officials are staying at the site with a hope to rescue Tanmay.
More than half of the horizontal tunnel has been dug so far”, Aathner police station incharge, Ajay Soni told TOI. Betul SP Shimala Prasad and other senior officials are superivising the rescue effort. Min- ister Inder Singh Parmar also reached the spot on Friday and took stock of the rescue works.
Mother of Tanmay broke down while talking to the minster and urging for his rescue. Police said, the borewell is owned by a villager named Nanak Chauhan. He had closed it using his own means around two years ago. The borewell's opening was plugged merely with gunny bags and the child fell into it while playing around 5pm on Tuesday.
Sources said Tanmay’s father Sunil too had dug a borewell only a week ago, and his farm is next to Chauhan's. Initially, it was believed that the borewell was owned by Tanmay's father.