A two-year-old boy who fell and got stuck into a borewell in Tamil Nadu’s Tiruchirappalli since Friday has been declared dead by the officials on early Tuesday morning. The child named Sujith Wilson’s body had decomposed inside the borewell. A rescue operation that involved digging a parallel tunnel to get to the toddler was called off soon after the body was found.
2-Year-Old Boy Trapped In Borewell For 3 Days
As per the government officials last night, rescuing the boy would have taken 12 more hours. A stench rising from the borewell confirmed their worst fears that the child had died after over four days in the tunnel without food or water. Officials retrieved Sujith Wilson’s dismembered body and sent it for a postmortem.
J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary in the Transport Department and the Relief Commissioner said, “The 2-year-old boy’s body is now in a decomposed state. We tried our best to rescue him but unfortunately, foul smell has started coming from the borewell in which the child had fallen. The digging process has been stopped. Efforts are on to retrieve the mortal remains of the child.”
Reportedly, Sujith Wilson was playing near the abandoned borewell near his home in Nadukattupatti on Friday evening when he fell inside. Progress on the rescue was slow because of rocky terrain and complex procedures, including drilling the parallel tunnel to reach the boy while ensuring the passage of oxygen to enable him to breathe in the closed space.
Earlier on Monday, a heavy German-made drilling machine was deployed to dig a parallel shaft to reach the boy stuck at a depth of 88 feet, but rescue efforts were hampered by rocky soil and rain.
Authorities had earlier said that Sujith was trapped at a depth of around 26 feet. Attempts to pull him up using a rope are believed to have caused him to fall further below to a depth of 88 feet.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said, “every effort” was being made to ensure the child was safe. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, and actor Rajinikanth had all expressed concern for Sujith’s safety.
