Rescue ops end after 10 days, help sought to look for 7-year-old boy

Gurugram: Authorities ended the search and rescue operation for a seven-year-old boy who fell in a canal at Gadoli village near Umang Bhardwaj Chowk in Sector 37D on August 7, police said on Thursday.

According to officials, authorities involved in rescue operations across a major part of the 26.4km-long drain — the boy, Dishant Ladot, had fallen while playing with other children on a road in front of his house around 4pm on August 7— including teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), divers from police, fire department, private, IRB Bhondsi and Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority that had been roped in for the rescue operation, have been relieved of their charge.

Officials engaged in the operation said that the canal carried sewage and industrial effluents leading to the presence of toxic gases, which hindered the movement of the rescue workers.

Now, only area-specific rescue and retrieval operations are being carried out as per the request of the family of the boy who is feared drowned, said officials.

The Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority (GMDA) has also approached other authorities, including the department of irrigation and flood control of the Delhi government, to extend the search downstream till Najafgarh.

The canal joins the 56km-long Najafgarh drain in Delhi after crossing Gurugram.

“We have been in touch with the department, and have urged them to keep a lookout so that if they spot the boy’s body (who is feared to have drowned) in the Delhi side of the drain, then they can alert us for the retrieval. The water in the canal was overflowing on August 7 due to heavy rainfall in Gurugram and neighbouring areas earlier in the morning. The entire stretch of the canal in the Gurugram side has already been searched, but we could not locate the boy,” said a GMDA official, requesting anonymity.

Gurugram Metropolitan Development Authority, meanwhile, has installed iron fencing along the open portion of the drain near the habitation to ensure that such incidents do not occur in the future, said officials.