GURGAON: Three-year-old Neha, who fell into a 250-300ft-deep borewell in Sector 8 while playing on Sunday evening, died after a 10-hour rescue operation. She was pulled out at around 4am on Monday but showed no signs of movement. She was rushed to a private hospital, where doctors declared her dead. Her body will be sent for postmortem to ascertain the exact cause of death.Teams from Haryana Police, the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), the Municipal Corporation and the health department were involved in the rescue operation.An NDRF official said the team was informed about the incident around 8pm and reached the spot from Ghaziabad around 9pm. Initially, rescuers could hear the child crying from inside the borewell, but the sound stopped after some time.The rescue teams also faced difficulties as the equipment they had brought could not be used effectively inside the narrow borewell. A tool was subsequently prepared at the spot with the help of a local car painter.According to the NDRF official, the borewell had remained unused for several years and had dirty water at a depth of around 125ft, making the operation more difficult. The child was found stuck more than 200ft below ground, with her head facing downwards. After several hours of effort, rescuers managed to pull her out by her legs.Neha had been playing with other children near the borewell when she accidentally fell into it. The other children raised an alarm, following which locals reached the spot and informed her father, Ramdeen.Ramdeen, a daily-wage worker originally from Mainpuri in Uttar Pradesh, has been living with his family in Sihi village for several years.Municipal Corporation XEN Sanjeev Kumar said the borewell had been closed with a lid around 15 years ago and the civic body had not received any information that the cover had been removed. He said an inquiry would be conducted and action would be taken against anyone found responsible for negligence.The incident has triggered anger among residents, who alleged that the tragedy could have been prevented had the abandoned borewell been properly secured. Residents have also demanded a fresh inspection of open and disused borewells in the area.
