In Delhi, stray dog stuck in drain under road rescued after 48 hrs

NEW DELHI: A rescue operation in the city came to a happy end at 1pm on Monday, after a dog stuck inside a drain beneath the road for 48 hours was rescued by firemen after drilling vertically through the road.
The fire service received a call at 10.30am about the street creature trapped in the drain in south Delhi's Green Park Extension. A team led by sub-officer Om Prakash of Safdarjung fire station reached the spot.They initially tried to break the side wall of the drain but found their efforts hampered by the enormous amount of muck accumulated there. Finally, after two and a half hours of planning, the firemen drilled a hole on the top of the drain and pulled out the stray.
"Inside the drain, there wasn't even space for the dog to turn around," said Prakash.
Sub-officer Prakash told TOI that the dog must have entered the drain and then found itself unable to exit from the other end, which was clogged with garbage. "The residents informed us that the dog was stuck for the last two days, but no one called us before this morning," Prakash said.
Breaking down the details of the rescue operation, Prakash said the road width was around 20 feet and the drain on either side were about 2.5 feet wide. "We first decided to break the side wall of the drain but when we attempted to do that, we realised that there wasn't enough space for us to work because of the collection of muck there. Besides, the dog was still at quite a distance from that spot and even if we had been able to break open the drain, we couldn't have reached the creature," said the fire officer.
The rescuers did not initially wantto drill from the top because that would have damaged the road lanter. "However, finding no way out, we requisitioned tools, which came from Nehru Place, and we started drilling from the top. Our personnel removed some muck using their bare hands. But before we could reach the dog, we had to drill some more," revealed Prakash.
It was finally around 1pm that the dog was pulled out. Videos of the rescue operation show the dog being taken out and being petted by the firemen. "The dog was not aggressive and sat calmly. This usually happens whenever anyone stuck in a place for a long time is rescued," added Prakash.
Atul Garg, director, Delhi Fire Services, said, "The job of firemen is to rescue everyone safely whether it's a human or a dog or a bird. I commend the work of the fire personnel who did everything possible to rescue the trapped dog."