Bhubaneswar: The relief was palpable as 11-year-old Rahul Sahu was brought out of the 80-ft abandoned borewell at Pihrid village, about 220 km east of Raipur, on a stretcher late on Tuesday after 105 hours long rescue operation ‘Mission Save Rahul’, braving the adverse challenges.
Praising the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team from Odisha’s Cuttack, Chhattisgarh’s Janjgir-Champa Collector Jitendra Kumar Shukla said, “Jai Odisha, Jai Jagannath. It was your prayers that helped us through the challenges and made the mission successful.”
He further said that the NDRF team from Cuttack handled the main part of this entire operation very well due to which Rahul could be rescued. “This was an unusual rescue mission. Just imagine there was a snake with the child at a depth of 60 feet. There was a frog too. Just imagine the challenge, the child was hearing and speech impaired. Even if we tried calling him, he couldn’t hear us. There were rocks all around where he was stuck. It was like a mountain deep down,” said Shukla, who was leading the team of rescuers.
The major challenge for the rescue team, comprising over 500 personnel of NDRF, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), Indian Army and senior government officials, was to break through the rocks.
“It was as if the huge rock there was trying shake our courage but due to the blessings of Lord Jagannath and well wishers, we remained steadfast in our faith and courage and were able to rescue the child,” he added.
A green corridor was then created to shift Rahul in an ambulance under the observation of specialist doctors to Apollo hospitals in Bilaspur district. “His condition is stable and he will recover soon,” the collector added.
Speaking to the media, NDRF inspector Mahaveer Mohanty said that it was a matter of life and death. “A life support system was readied for Rahul and then a blueprint was prepared. Every hour was a challenge for NDRF. The moment we saw him, all of us broke into tears,” he said.
