torescue four-year-old Mahi, who has been trapped in a borewell at a
village in Gurgaon since Wednesday night.
The ongoing relentlessefforts to pull four-year-old Mahi outof a
70-foot-deep borewell at Kasan village here have beenhampered what
with the rescue teams, digging a rescue tunnel, encountering arock.
The three-day rescue operation, which was expected to have
beencompleted on Friday night, continued till late in the evening on
Saturday, further dimming the hopes of the girl being brought out
alive.
"We were just a metreaway from the girl on Friday evening when we ran
into the rock. It slowed down the pace of work as the team initially
refrained from using drilling machines to avoid a cave-in and tried to
cut the rock manually. Later, the drilling machine was also used
selectively. When senior officers of the 3 Engineers Regiment reviewed
the situation on Saturday afternoon, it was decided to navigate around
the rock," said District Public Relations Officer (Gurgaon) R.S.
Sangwan, adding more equipment was being procured to expedite the
work.
Earlier in the day, the team of Army personnel, which was initially
constituted for digging the tunnel,had to be withdrawn as it was
exhausted. "Continuously engaged in digging for over 36 hours, the
personnel were replaced by a new team on Saturday morning," said Mr.
Sangwan.
He said the operation was going on without a break but it would be
difficult to speculate how long it would take. "It is a rocky terrain.
We are trying our level best topull out the girl at the earliest." A
two-member team of paediatricians from the Medanta Medicity Hospital
was also stationed at the spot on Friday night in anticipation of the
operation being completed anytime soon.
Besides, two ambulances of the Gurgaon Civil Hospital and one from the
Army were present at the spot and adequatearrangements had been made
at a hospital in Manesar.
To a query, Mr. Sangwan said: "The girl has been supplied oxygen since
she fell into the borewell on Wednesday night, but there is no update
on her condition as of now. Cameras lowered into the borewell time and
again have not captured any movement, but then there is no space for
them. Also, it is not possible to supply food and water to the girl
with the borewell being so narrow."
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