Hours of Rescue Operation Fails; Elderly Woman Who Fell on 20-ft Borewell Pit Dies

Bhubaneswar: Hours of efforts by Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRAF) bore no results as the elderly woman who had on Monday night fallen into a 20-feet deep borewell pit at Kainphula village in Sonepur district died minutes after her rescue. The deceased was identified as Dukhi Nayak.

Nayak was rescued from the borewell following a 12-hour operation by fire services and ODRAF personnel.

As per reports, Dukhi was rushed to the Sonepur hospital where doctors at the hospital declared her brought dead.

“The rescue operation was extremely challenging. A 28-member ODRAF team had arrived at the spot after receiving a letter from the Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA). The fire fighting team had already begun the operation before our arrival. The woman was 80 years old, so it was imperative for us to rescue her soon enough. We tried our level best to rescue her,” said a member of the ODRAF team.

OSDMA managing director Gyanaranjan Das said, “The fire services personnel team responded immediately. After that a team of ODRAF also reached following orders of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC). We had also sent an NDRF team to the spot as they have experience in conducting such kind of rescue operations. However, the ODRAF and fire services team succeeded in rescuing her before the NDRF’s arrival.

Nayak was reportedly out on a nature’s call when she fell in the abandoned borewell late Monday night.

Sonepur district superintendent of police (SP) Amaresh Kumar Panda said that an enquiry had been conducted to ascertain who dug that borewell and left it abandoned.