Bijapur: Operation Kanchan’ Ends in Tragedy - Body Retrieved from Borewell

Bijapur, Sep 7 (DHNS) : Four-year-old Kanchan’s battle for survival, against all-odds, in a 50-feet borewell, ended here on Sunday morning. Her lifeless, decomposed body was pulled out from the depths of the pit in an operation named after her.  

'Operation Kanchan’, undertaken to rescue Kanchan who had fallen into an open borewell in the afternoon of August 31concluded on Sunday morning. Brought out dead from the borewell, the body of Kanchan, who hails from Devar Nimbaragi village here, was  taken to Chadachan for autopsy and then handed over to her relatives.
The body was in a state of decomposition with only bits of flesh clinging to the skeleton. Kanchan was buried in her village cemetery.

Her relatives had lived these tortuous days between hope and despair. Some of them had  arrived when the operation to retrieve her body concluded. But recovering a decomposed body of a child after days of  hard labour was very painful for the soldiers involved in the rescue operation.

The rescue operation was one of the longest in the State undertaken to rescue children fallen into open bore wells. 

The body could be recovered after six complete days. It was the first time that the soldiers of the Maratha Light Infantry, of the Indian Army from Secunderabad, a team of experts from Hatti Gold Mines, the fire brigade  and the police and hundreds of villagers were involved in the operation.

Setbacks

The  work of the rescue  team suffered  setbacks due to intermittent rains. The toughest problem the teams encountered was the hard rock layer. It  was not possible to undertake a   big blast as it would have hit the bore well. The soldiers preferred to use smaller blasts to ensure the safety of the child.

Kanchan’s mother is in confinement as she had given birth to a male child just three days before the incident.  The woman refused to eat and went unconscious  often.  
Even though an order has been passed to close all unused bore wells, the district administration has failed in implementing it.

District in-charge Minister Govind Karjol said that from now onwards obtaining permission from competent authority would be made compulsory before drilling  bore wells so that necessary steps can be taken to close it in the event of the bore well becoming dysfunctional.

*  August 31: 12.30 pm: Kanchan falls into borewell;
4.30 pm: JCBs sent to the spot; operation begins
*  September 1: Soldiers from Maratha Light Infantry, and Military Engineering Service, Secunderabad, arrive. Rains, rocks hamper progress
*  September 2: Arrival of a team of experts from the Hutti Gold Mines. Heavy excavators, explosives used.
*  September 3: Operation progresses, no luck
*  September 4: Team succeeds in digging a 50-foot trench; foul smell emanating from the borewell
*  September 5: Team tries to dig a tunnel, but  rain and rocks hamper work
*  September 6: Kanchan’s body brought out of borewell