Punjab: 2-year-old Fatehveer Singh, stuck in borewell for over 100 hours, dies

Fatehveer Singh, the two-year-old stuck in a 150-foot-deep borewell in Punjab’s Sangrur, has been declared dead by the doctors. It is still not clear whether the infant had died in the pit or was alive when rescued. According to an Indian Express report, Singh’s hands were clamped with a rope at time of the rescue. Fatehvir Singh was the only child of his parents. He fell into the unused seven-inch-wide borewell in a field covered with cloth while he was playing near his house around 4 pm Thursday, officials said.

The child was rescued around 5:30 am by National Disaster Response Force personnel, officials said. "Fatehveer has been pulled out of the borewell and he is being taken to hospital in an ambulance," Sagrur Deputy Commissioner Ghanshyam Thori was quoted at the time of the rescue. 

The only child of his parents who had turned two on Monday, he fell into the borewell in a field when he was playing in Bhagwanpura village around 4 pm on Thursday. Singh fell unconscious after being stuck into the borewell. Officials couldn't reach him food, however, oxygen was being supplied to him. On Saturday morning, officials, who were monitoring the boy’s condition through camera, had said some movements of the child were noticed. Apart from the govt’s rescuers, around 200 volunteers from Dera Sacha Sauda were also deployed to dig parallel borewell manually.

The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also deputed an officer who specialises in operations to rescue children stuck in borewells, the DC said.

The toddler was stuck at a depth of 125 feet and a team of NDRF personnel and army experts, assisted by police, civil authorities, villagers and volunteers, are carrying out the rescue operations.

(With agency inputs)