(Image source from: www.indiatoday.in)

While the entire nation of India was celebrating the festival of lights, a family in Tamil Nadu found the overshadowing darkness over their heads. Three year old Sujith Wilson fell into a 600-ft disused farm borewell on October 25th, 2019 in Nadukattupatti while playing around.

The persistent rescue mission to save the child continued on for 80 hours but the toddler was finally pronounced dead on Tuesday, October 30th, 2019 after being pulled out from the well.

This isn’t the first case of well fall in India and it is necessary for the families and the authorities to take better care to avoid the situation in the first place. In the past few years, there has been a number of such reported cases of children falling into wells, some of which have retrieved successful rescues while some didn’t.

There has been uproar of support for the family involved during the hard times, people from across the country and the world coming together to pray for the child and his safety. Several twitter hashtags including #PrayforSujith were trending in support for the boy.

The rescue mission continued on for an arduous 80 hours consistently. Several of the state and the central rescue teams jumped in to do the needful to save the child from the ill fate. Some of the specialized teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) also came forward to lend their hand for the rescue.

The child, when he fell, was stuck at 35 feet depth but then kept slipping down to 70 feet and finally to 90 feet. The rescuers ensured to supply the necessary oxygen to the child and kept monitoring him with the specialized tools.

The involved authorities were unsuccessful in assessing the condition of the boy because of the thick layer of wet mud that surrounded the boy. But, the camera monitoring suggested that Sujith was unconscious but still breathing when he was trapped 88 feet under.

Ministers C Vijayabaskar and Vellamandi were found camped around the area since Friday to get immediate updates on the condition of the child. Not just that, even celebrities and the Prime Minister of India took to Twitter to share their thoughts and prayers for the child’s well being and quick recovery.

Later on Sunday, October 27th, 2019, two days after the incident happened, a rig was deployed on the site to drill a similar hole of 100 feet parallel to where Sujith was stuck. With that being unsuccessful, another German-made drilling machine was deployed to again try and dig a hole to rescue the boy who was stuck 88 feet inside.

Even that effort turned futile because of the rocky soil and the constant rain that was pouring down. Even two fire and rescue service personnel was lowered down to the dug shaft to try any efforts to get the child out.

The rescue authorities consistently faced failure because of the narrow diameter of the borewell and Sujith being trapped inside the well in a very rocky position. The rescuers didn’t want to go in a way that would end up closing the trap of the borewell, further making it a fatal condition for the boy.

It was later on Monday morning that the people stationed around the borewell could get a very foul smell and the rescuers had to work around to assess the situation. Upon further reports, the authorities reported that the body is in a very decomposed stated following which the drilling process was put to a halt.

The death of the toddler, Sujith Wilson did provoke rage among the villagers present during the scene. Everyone later gathered to attend the funeral of the child. The family of the deceased accused the local government highlighting their negligence in the situation but the authorities were quick to suggest that they did their absolute best in the rescue mission.

-Somapika Dutta