Faridabad, Sept 28: In a devastating turn of events, a 10-hour emergency operation in Faridabad ended in tragedy as a three-year-old girl pulled from a deep, abandoned borewell was declared dead at a local private facility early Monday.
The incident unfolded in Sihi village on Sunday evening when young Neha fell into the 200-foot-deep shaft while playing alongside other neighborhood children. Initial calls summoned teams from the Haryana Police, Municipal Corporation, SDRF, and Health Department, with NDRF units deploying rapidly from Ghaziabad to assist in the high-stakes rescue attempt.
Operations faced immediate technical and environmental hurdles. Authorities noted that water sitting at a depth of 125 feet hampered movement, while the child remained trapped upside down further down the shaft. With standard specialized gear proving unsuitable for the narrow opening, teams adapted by fabricating a bespoke extraction tool on location with the help of a local mechanic. Rescuers maintained continuous efforts throughout the night, eventually reaching the unresponsive child at 4:00 AM.
A senior police officer declared that the child’s body has been placed in the mortuary, with a full post-mortem examination scheduled to verify the cause of death.
The tragedy has raised questions among Sector 8 residents concerning the safety of abandoned civic infrastructure. According to the girl’s father, Ramdin, the municipal borewell had been closed for 15 years, but its protective cover had gone missing in recent days before the children climbed onto a nearby tractor during play.
Municipal Corporation of Faridabad Executive Engineer Sanjeev Kumar maintained that the civic body had originally sealed the shaft 15 years ago and had received no reports of the lid being missing or tampered with. Authorities asserted that a complete inquiry into the incident will be conducted, with firm administrative measures assured against any party found negligent.
