A two-and-a-half-year-old girl, Srishti Kushwaha, fell into a 300-feet deep open borewell and got stuck at around 30 feet depth yesterday in the Sehore district of Madhya Pradesh, but as a result of heavy vibrations caused by JCB and poclain machines used for her rescue, the child slipped further down to a depth of 100 feet by today afternoon even as the army joined the rescue operations.

By today evening the rescue operation was continuing and the army took over the mission to save the stuck child. Oxygen was continuously being supplied inside the borewell to help the child stay alive and the rescue officials were monitoring her movements through cameras.

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An attempt in the evening to bring out the girl with the help of a hook did not succeed. The girl was being pulled up with the hook attached to her clothes. However, the child’s clothes tore and the hook got released abruptly. This resulted in Srishti slipping down deeper into the borewell to a depth of around 150 feet.

The incident occurred in the Mungawali village in Sehore district, which is MP Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s home district. The girl fell into the borewell at around 1.30 pm yesterday when she was playing.

On getting information, teams of police, district administration officials and NDRF and SDERF were rushed to the spot for her rescue. JCB Machines and poclain excavators were utilized to dig a huge crater around the borewell in an attempt to bring out the child.

However, the heavy vibrations caused by the digging by machines resulted in the girl slipping down to a depth of around 100 feet by this afternoon.

Sehore Superintendent of Police (SP) Mayank Awasthi, Collector in-charge Ashish Tiwari and officials of SDERF and NDRF along with a team of doctors kept monitoring the rescue operations the whole night.

MP CM Shivraj Singh Chouhan said the army has been called out to rescue the girl. “The child was initially stuck at a depth of around 40 feet but now she has slipped down to a 100 feet depth,” Mr Chouhan said today morning. “We have called the army in the hope that this would expedite the rescue operation and the girl child would be brought out safely and quickly,” the CM said.

More than half-a-dozen incidents of children falling into open borewells, and some of them dying, have occurred in MP in one year.

After each such incident CM Chouhan has passed strict directives to officials to ensure that all borewells, wells and baawdis (stepwells) across the state get covered properly to avoid reoccurrence of such mishaps. However, it seems that no heed has been paid to the CM’s orders.

On 6 May, a two-and-a-half-year-old boy had fallen into an open borewell in the Sontalai village in Betul district. He was rescued safely.

On 3 April, Ashish Kevat (10) fell into an open borewell in village Bhanpur in Raisen district. Villagers rescued him by pulling him out with the help of a rope.

In March this year, a 7-year-old boy, Lokesh Ahirwar fell into a 60-feet deep borewell in Kherkhedi village of Vidisha district and was brought out after 24 hours operation jointly by Indian Army and SDRF teams. However, by the time the boy was extricated out of the borewell, he had died.

A girl child, Nancy Vishwakarma had fallen into an open borewell in Lalgua village in Chhatarpur district in February. She was rescued alive.

Eight-year-old boy Tanmay was not so lucky, as he could not be saved after falling into a borewell in Mandvi village in Betul district despite being extricated from the borewell after an 84-hour-long rescue operation.

In another major tragedy, 36 people including women and children had died after the collapse of the floor, which had been created by weakly covering the open mouth of an 80-year-old around 25-feet-deep baawdi (stepwell), inside the Beleshwar Mahadev Jhulelal Temple at Patel Nagar in Indore on the occasion of Ram Navami on 30 March this year.