Bagalkot borewell tragedy:Boy dead

We already tolf you that a massive rescue operation was in progress to save a 6-year-old boy who fell into a borewell in Sulikeri village of Bagalkot in Karnataka on Sunday.

According to latest report, the boy has died turning the rescue efforts futile.

As the rescue team noticed some movement of the boy’s hands at a depth of 160 feet through a powerful closed circuit television (CCTV) camera connected to a laptop, oxygen was being supplied since last evening. through a long pipe to ensure he breathes and stays alive as long.

“Two earth-moving machines and one drilling machine are digging a well up to 170 feet parallel to the borewell and make a passage to reach the boy for recuing him alive,” Patil, district in-charge minister had said camping at the spot with district officials and fire brigade men.

A 10-member expert team from the state-run Hutti Gold Mines in Raichur district, about 200km away from Bagalkot, had rushed to the spot with additional equipment and searchlights for stepping up the rescue operation through the night despite inclement weather and intermittent rain since evening.

"A six-member team of the National Disaster Rescue Force (NDRF) is on way from Bangalore by flight to Bellary to reach here on road at the earliest. We have also asked Manje Gowda, a well-known robot expert, to reach the spot for rescuing the boy," Patil, a cabinet minister for IT and biotechnology, had said.

An ambulance has been kept ready to rush the boy to the state-run district hospital after retrieving him from the deep hole.

About 2,000 people from Sulikere and surrounding villages in this backward district were camping at the spot, watching the rescue efforts under powerful searchlights.

Hundreds of village folks had joined the boy's family in praying for his life in local temples, while his friends were worried over Thimanna's fate.

And as fate would have it, the boy breathed its last plunging the entire region into grief.