Manesar: More than 60 hours after four-year-old Mahi fell into a 70-feet-deep borewell in a Manesar village in Haryana in the foothills of the Aravalli Ranges, hopes of her survival grew dimmer, even as the army and the police are racing against time to rescue the trapped girl.

Rescue teams had no idea still how deep she has fallen.

Indian Army engineers from Delhi and National Security Guard commandos, who are based in Manesar, were trying to rescue the child. The accident drew nationwide attention after wide coverage on TV.

According to Chief Medical Officer Praveen Garg, the supply of oxygen was being provided through a pipe to Mahi, although there was no word about her condition.

The incident came six years after a similar dramatic rescue of a five-year-old boy called Prince, who was saved 50 hours after falling into a 60-feet pit near Kurukshetra in Haryana, an event that was followed live on national television.

Technology deployed

Ground Penetrating Radar System (GPRS) was deployed to assist the rescue team on Friday.

Earlier, a bore was dug parallel to the borewell in which Mahi is trapped.

The gap between both the bores is about 8 feet. While digging the tunnel to reach the child, from newbore to borewell, a large piece of stone had become a barrier. Due to that, the rescue team missed the goal on Friday.

Another tunnel was dug on Saturday. But, the rescue team was facing the same problem. This time instead of cutting the stones by hands, they were using a hand cutter drill machine, an official added.

If the current efforts fail, then a fresh parallel bore would be needed, an official said.

Oxygen-deprived tunnel

Rescue personnel inside the tunnel carrying oxygen pipes with them were hardly able to stay for more than five to 10 minutes in the tunnel at a stretch.

Rohtash Singh, the owner of the land where Mahi slipped and fell, has been charged but is absconding, DCP (South) Praveen Mehta told IANS.

Mahi slipped into a borewell near Manesar’s Industrial Model Township on National Highway 8, when her family was celebrating her birthday around 11pm on Wednesday.

Mahi is the daughter of Niraj Upadhyay, who hails from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh district. He is a security supervisor at a factory in Manesar and was living in Kasan village with his wife Sonia and two-year old daughter.