Gurgaon: Rescue delayed, nation waits for Mahi to be saved

New Delhi: Rescuers on Sunday managed to reach five-year-old Mahi, more than 86 hours after she fell into a 70-feet-deep borewell near Manesar in Haryana but the rescue operations have been hit again. The delay has been due to the fact that Mahi is caught between two other rocks.

Her distraught family waits for the rescue workers to reach the child as early as possible as the chances of her survival continue to look more grim.

Mahi's health status is still unknown and she is expected to be brought out of the pit soon.

Trapped in the borewell near Gurgaon for more than 86 hours, chances of survival of the five-year-old are grim.

The final breakthrough in the rescue operation came when the Army found a way to circumvent the rock that separated her from the parallel tunnel.

The hard rock was a major hurdle which the rescuers had been struggling to break for the last two days, Lt Colonel Ashwani Tyagi, who is heading the operation, said. The slab was located in the horizontal tunnel between the borewell and the pit dug up to rescue the child.

It has been one of the longest rescue operations where a horizontal sensor locator had been called in from GMR which helped locate the direction of the rock which separated the rescue team and the child.

Oxygen was being constantly supplied to Mahi since the rescue operation began. Over 100 officials drawn from Army, fire, police, Gurgaon Rapid Metrorail, health and revenue departments, and locals have been involved in drilling a pit parallel to the borewell.

"Mahi was celebrating her fourth birthday and was playing with children outside the home near the borewell when she suddenly fell into it," her father Neeraj said, adding that the incident took place at 11 pm on Thursday.

Her arm was spotted in footage from a CCTV camera earlier that was lowered into the pit but Mahi does not seem to be moving.

The father claimed that as soon as his daughter fell in the borewell, he called up the police but they arrived one-and-a-half hour late. For two hours the child kept crying inside the borewell, asking for help but now she is not responding to any calls, he said.

Meanwhile, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has sought explanation from the Haryana government to ascertain if it was the result of any negligence on its part.

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