Calf trapped in storm water drain rescued after 20 hours

CHENNAI: A one-year-old calf was rescued by fire services personnel from an open manhole of a storm water drain near Siruseri on Old Mahabalipuram Road at 5pm on Wednesday, after almost 20 hours.
The calf had fallen in on Tuesday night and many people heard its cries but no one bothered to help, fire services officials said. Software engineers P S N Vamshi of Andhra Pradesh and Balaji Desikachari and Jagan Kumar of Chennai, both employees of the TCS branch in Siruseri, first started the process that led to the rescue.
“On Wednesday evening, just before leaving for home, we went to have tea at a shop near our office and heard the calf’s cries from the manhole. We searched but couldn’t see it at first. Later, I leaned deep into the hole and spotted the calf. It was sad, hearing its pitiful ‘moos’ as soon as it saw me taking photographs,” Vamshi later told TOI.
Balaji then called the Just Dial service and got the number of the Blue Cross of India, whose officials supplied the number of the fire and rescue services unit at SIPCOT in Siruseri . Balaji immediately called the unit and explained the situation. “We thought nothing would happen and no one would come for the rescue of the small calf. We were preparing to rescue the calf ourselves when we heard the siren of a fire tender from the SIPCOT unit and a four-member team was at the spot in 5-10 minutes,” Jagan Kumar told TOI.
The team comprising leading fireman V Jayaraman and firemen V Vijay Amirtharaj, L Solomon Amirtharaj and S Arun Pandian swung into action , got into the manhole and pulled the calf out.