Lok Sabha Question No. 421 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-19
Subject: Borewell Incidents
Ministry: HOME AFFAIRS
Asked by: S. Jagathrakshakan, M.K. Vishnu Prasad

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 421

TO BE ANSWERED ON THE 19 TH  NOVEMBER, 2019/ KARTIKA 28, 1941 (SAKA)

BOREWELL INCIDENTS

421.    SHRI S.  JAGATHRAKSHAKAN: DR. VISHNU PRASAD M.K.:

Will the Minister of HOME AFFAIRS be pleased to state:

(a) the number of incidents of children falling down and getting trapped inside the abandoned borewells in the country during the last three years and the current year till 31st of October, State-wise;

(b) the details of the efforts made by the respective State Governments and National  Disaster  Response  Force  (NDRF)  in  rescuing  those  children  with modern and latest technology;

(c)  the  reasons  due  to  which  the  agencies  failed  to  rescue  a  two  year  old child who fell down in a borewell in Tiruchi district of Tamil Nadu; and

(d) whether any guidelines/ framework has been evolved at the higher level to meet such challenges in future and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HOME AFFAIRS (SHRI NITYANAND RAI)

(a): The specific data in respect of Borewell incident is not received by the

Ministry of Home Affairs from the States/ UTs.

(b) and (d):   Borewell incident is an accident/incident and not a disaster. As such it does not fall directly under the mandate of NDRF response. However, since human lives are at stake, NDRF responds to such borewell incidents on humanitarian ground as per the requisition of the civil administration. NDRF, out of its own initiatives, has prepared an SOP on bore-well incident response for internal training and enhancing the capabilities of its responders. The SOP has also been circulated to all States/UTs.

## L.S.US.Q.NO.421 FOR 19.11.2019

(c): As  per  the  information  given  by  the  State  Government  of  Tamil  Nadu, the two year old boy Master Sujith Wilson fell accidently into an abandoned borewell  belonging  to  their  own  family  in  their  own  land  on  25.10.2019 (evening) in Tiruchirappalli district of Tamil Nadu. The district administration, on  receipt  of  the  information,  immediately  swung  into  action  and  deployed Fire & Rescue Service, the local police and community persons. In addition, specialist  teams  of  State  Disaster  Response  Force  and  National  Disaster Response  Force  were  also  deployed  to  supplement  the  rescue  efforts  of district  administration.  Teams  of  experts  of  Neyveli  Lignite  Corporation, ONGC, L&T and NIT Tiruchirappalli were also  engaged  in  rescue  operation. The  boy  could  not  be  rescued  due  to  the  transverse  opening of  the abandoned private borewell whose opening was  of only  4.5 inches  and  the entire  depth  was  rocky  with  the  child  trapped  initially  at  28  feet  who  later slipped to 88 feet where his position was stabilized. Due to stiff rock in the borewell  none  of  the  mechanical  contraptions  could  go  below  the  child  to stabilize the child and help in pulling the child out and instead the child slid to  about  88  feet.  Since  mouth  of  the  borewell  was  too  small, recovery through cradle or winching could not be undertaken.  The rocky terrain with quartz and feldspar rocks in the underneath surface made drilling of alternate parallel  tunnel  a  very  slow  process.  Delay  was  encountered  since  soil substrate was solid igneous rocks from 5 feet to 55 feet depth.

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