Click to play videoNew Delhi: The drooping shoulders and the haggard faces of men in uniform said it all. A 98-hour-long wait to reach two-year-old Sonu, who was trapped in an abandoned borewell, ended in tragedy on Monday.
Sonu's parents are holding the district administration responsible for their son's death.
The rescue mission, which had turned into a retrieval operation, was the biggest operation of its kind.
The Army and the district authorities dug up a 300ft long, 500 ft wide and 80 ft deep patch of soil next to the 1-foot-wide borewell.
Sonu, who had fallen 68 feet on Thursday, had slipped to 72 feet by Sunday. The diameter of the borewell ruled out any other rescue plan. Heavy duty cranes required for digging had to be transported from Bharatpur in Rajasthan which delaying the rescue mission.
“We tried our best and that’s for everyone to see,” DM Agra, Anil Kumar, said.
The soil texture further complicated the rescue effort.
On Friday, the Army reached a depth of 78ft to start work on the horizontal shaft, but then on early Saturday, the walls of the borewell suddenly caved in. With an entire day’s progress lost, the Army had to restart the operation. T
The machines were replaced by muscles, further slowing down the operation. The man, who undertook the next phase of digging 50 ft, escaped death by a whisker when the walls caved in.
In the end, Sonu's death was a senseless tragedy that should have been averted.
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