Odisha: 80-year-old woman dies after falling into borewell

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An 80-year-old woman reportedly died after falling into a borewell in Odisha's Sonepur district, officials said on Tuesday, according to the PTI.

The woman, identified as Dukhi Negi, was taken out of the 20-feet-deep borewell in a critical condition after a five-hour-long rescue operation and rushed to a hospital where doctors declared her brought dead, as per the PTI.

The news agency reported, the elderly woman had slipped and fallen into the abandoned borewell in a forested area near Kainphula village in Sadar block on Monday evening, a police officer said, adding her family claimed she was deaf and mute.

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Locals searched for the woman the entire night and also informed the police. She was found in the borewell on Tuesday morning, following which the Fire Services and Odisha Disaster Rapid Action Force (ODRAF) launched the rescue operation.

The rescue team supplied oxygen into the borewell to help the woman breathe and dug a parallel hole to bring her out.

After being brought out of the borewell in a critical condition, she was taken to Sonepur district hospital, where treating doctors declared her brought dead.

"She had died before being brought to the hospital," Somi Purohit, a doctor at the Sonepur hospital said.

Sonepur Superintendent of Police Amaresh Panda said the woman's pulse rate was very low when she was brought out of the borewell.

A snake was also found along with the woman but it is yet to be confirmed whether she was bitten by the reptile, he said.

Gopabandhu Nayak, a member of the rescue team, said the woman was in a sitting position with her hands pressed against the wall of the borewell.

"We dug another hole close to the borewell to rescue her. During the search operation, we could see her but she was not responding to commands," Assistant Fire Officer Dhananjay Mallik said.

Health Minister Niranjan Pujari, who represents Sonepur constituency, said a proper investigation will be conducted into the incident.

Meanwhile, in an another similar incident, in August, a 6-year-old boy had reportedly fell into a borewell in Maharashtra's Parbhani district, triggering a rescue operation, an official said.

The boy was playing when he slipped into the borewell at Ukkalgaon in Manwath tehsil around 11 am. The borewell is not being used for the past few years, he said.

(with PTI inputs)