3-year-old girl remains trapped in Rajasthan borewell, rescue operations on

Jaipur, Dec 25 (IANS) Three-year-old Chetna, who fell into a 700-ft deep borewell in Rajasthan's Kotputli on December 23, has still not been rescued, even as efforts continue.

The girl, a resident of Badiyali ki Dhani in Kiratpur, fell into the borewell while playing around 2 p.m. on Monday. She was initially stuck at a depth of about 150 feet. Using a makeshift tool, rescuers managed to pull her up only 30 feet. Since Tuesday morning, her movements have been unclear.

Meanwhile, four local techniques failed late on Tuesday night to bring out the girl and hence the use of the piling machine has begun now.

Yogesh Meena, in charge of the NDRF operation, explained that the piling machine can dig to a depth of 150 feet. "We will now dig a parallel tunnel, 150 feet long, using the piling machine. Once that's done, we’ll dig a small tunnel from the new tunnel to the borewell to reach the girl."

Rescuers plan to dig down to 160 feet to ensure the girl is above them, allowing them to reach her safely from below. Currently, Chetna is stuck at a depth of 120 feet with the help of a J-shaped hook. The indigenous method of pulling her up with a hook failed on Tuesday.

At around midnight on Tuesday, Kotputli Subdivision Officer Brijesh Kumar updated the media on the operation, stating that they were working nonstop to rescue the girl. "Our first plan was to extract the girl using various tools. When that failed, we moved to plan B -- digging a pit using the piling machine," he explained.

Meanwhile, Chetna’s grandfather, Harshaya Chaudhary, criticised the administration for negligence. He said, "The administration kept saying they were removing soil, but after 28 hours, they decided to use a machine to dig. This is negligence."