5-year-old boy dies after being rescued from pit in Rajasthan after hours-long operation

JAIPUR: It was just another day in the field for Guddi Devi, working and seeing her five-year-old son play when he suddenly disappeared into the depths of the earth to never return alive.

Aryan, who was rescued last night after a 56-hour-long operation from a 150-ft borewell pit, died on Thursday.

"The child's post-mortem was done today and the body was handed over to the family. Aryan was one of Guddi Devi's five children," Nangal Rajawatan's subdivision officer Yashwant Meena said.

The incident occurred Monday afternoon in the Kalikhad village of Rajasthan's Dausa.

Drilling machines brought from Jaipur, Dausa, and Sawai Madhopur bored into the ground for hours, testing the patience of the kin.

All this while, Aryan's mother kept on fainting, while his father cursed why he ever dug the pit.

The hole was dug three years ago but it could never be put to use and the work never finished.

An officer involved in the rescue operation said first, an attempt was made to pull the boy out by throwing a rope but it was unsuccessful.

Then, a pit was dug parallel to the borewell hole to reach the boy via a tunnel. That failed too.

An oxygen pipe was inserted through the hole to ensure that Aryan could get sufficient oxygen and a camera was also put down to see his movements, but it was not possible to keep a constant watch on him due to the underground water.

Finally, the boy was rescued last night from the same pit into which he had fallen.

Hopes of his wellbeing, however, were shattered when doctors at the district hospital declared Aryan dead.

Police were hard-pressed to control the crowd that had swelled outside the hospital by then.