Bhubaneswar: The efforts of Mahaveer Mohanty, an officer of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) from Odisha has been hailed by all and sundry in the rescue of 11-year-old Rahul Sahu who was stuck in a borewell in Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir Champa district for more than 104 hours. It is being said that Mahaveer Mohanty played a crucial role in the rescuing Rahul from the 80 feet deep borewell. He was leading the rescue team and and chalked out plans to safely bring out Rahul from the borewell.
Sources said that around 5.45pm June 10, the Janjgir Champa district SP called up the NDRF official. He said that a boy has fallen into a borewell and requested the help from the NDRF to bring out the kid. After getting the go-ahead from his superiors, Mahaveer and his team left for the accident spot that very same evening.
All through the journey, Mahaveer kept in constant touch with the local administration. He asked officials to clear the crowd which had gathered in the area. He also requested them to provide water and oxygen to the trapped kid.
During the 275-km travel between Bhilai to the location, Mahaveer chalked out a plan for the rescue operation.
After the boy was finally brought out from the borewell Tuesday night, Mahaveer said that carrying out the rescue operation in 45 degree Celsius temperatures for five days and cutting a dolomite stone layer while reaching the trapped boy were the major challenges.
“We had to be very careful regarding the rescue operation as excess pressure would have resulted in collapse of the borewell. Also, we had to ensure safety of the boy and see to it that he did not get hurt by any of the equipment we were using,” Mahaveer later said.
This was the first time this kind of operation had been carried out in Chhattisgarh. Over 500 personnel, including officials of NDRF, the Army, local police and the administration, were involved in the rescue operation that started Friday evening. Rahul had fallen into the borewell the same day at around 2.00pm in the afternoon. He was playing in the backyard of his house in Pihrid village in Malkharoda development block when the accident happened.
Currently Rahul is undergoing treatment at a hospital in Bilaspur in Chhattisgarh. Doctors said that his condition is stable. Rahul incidentally suffers from speech and hearing problems, so it was difficult to communicate with him, Mahaveer stated.