On dangerous ground: Open borewells pose a festering risk

With a track record of unsuccessful rescue missions, accidental falls and entrapments bring into focus the need to manage defunct borewells.

Hubballi/Ahmedabad: For Satish Mujangond, a resident of Vijayapura district in north Karnataka, April 2, 2024 is a day that is seared into his memory. At around 6 pm that day, his 15-month-old son, Sathvik, accidentally fell into a 260-foot borewell that was dug just a day before in his field.

The well was not yet functional. The 22 hours that followed the fall constitute one of the most agonising times for Satish’s family. 

Rescue persons from the National and State Disaster Response Force, police, fire and emergency departments worked to dig a 20-foot passage next to the tubewell where the infant was stuck. Through the mission, though the family could hear Sathvik’s anklets sounding from time to time, they were unsure if the child had survived the fall. Miraculously, after nearly 20 hours, the rescuers were able to reach the child and retrieve him alive. 

The family and rescuers’ joy was evident as the child was shifted to the nearest government hospital. Doctors confirmed that the toddler’s vitals were normal and he had no major injuries.

“Sathvik was relatively unharmed due to the reduced size of the casing after 20 feet and the fact that he stumbled into the hole head first,” says Satish. He adds that his son is doing fine now and is not displaying any post-traumatic stress behaviours. 

The event has continued to haunt him and his wife to this day. The family has also had to deal with an FIR filed by the police.

Sathvik happens to be one of two extremely fortunate children in Karnataka who have survived after falling into non-functioning borewells. In eight other instances during the same period in Karnataka, children have lost their lives. These ‘death holes’ have claimed many lives, particularly children, across the country in the past several decades. 

While there are no publicly available figures on the exact number of such casualties in the country, a report by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) indicates that between 2009 and 2019, there were about  40 deaths — of which 33 were children below the age of ten. 

States with high numbers of borewells, and a significant portion of non-functional wells, have witnessed such accidents the most. Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Telangana, Gujarat and Rajasthan have witnessed the worst of these cases over the years. 

There are a total of 2.19 crore groundwater structures in India, out of which nearly 83 lakh are dug wells, 56 lakh are shallow tube wells, 43 lakh are medium tube wells, and 37.5 lakh are deep tube wells according to an answer tabled in the Lok Sabha by the Union Ministry of Jal Shakthi in 2023. Deep tube wells are also called borewells.

Citing a 2022 United Nations water development report on groundwater, the ministry said that India was among the top ten countries with the highest shares in global groundwater withdrawal, as of 2017.

The use of borewells became increasingly prevalent from the 1970s onwards after water scarcity prompted many to start looking for alternative sources of water for irrigation.

Installed for agricultural purposes, the wells are one foot in diameter and can go as deep as 1,000 feet or more, depending on the groundwater availability. Many wells are abandoned when the water level recedes drastically. Such abandoned borewells start posing a risk when the PVC pipes and covers are removed, as is common practice.

Borewell-related accidents garnered major national attention for the first time in 2006 when a six-year-old Prince Kumar Kashyap fell into a 60-foot deep borewell in Haldheri village, Haryana. The rescue operation was successful and was live-streamed on TV channels.

Two decades later, after several accidental deaths and falls, the Government of Karnataka brought in legislation to tackle the issue. The measure only came four months after Sathvik’s ordeal, on August 5, 2024. The state government amended the Karnataka Ground Water (Regulation and Control of Development and Management) Act by introducing penal provisions for owners of the wells and agencies involved in digging the borewells. The Act now features a Rs 25,000 fine for neglect and one year jail time as penalties. Some other states, like Goa and Madhya Pradesh, have followed suit with specific laws to address the issue.

However, officials in the Groundwater Directorate and Karnataka Groundwater Authority (GDKGA) say the provision has not successfully addressed the larger problem.

Exploitation of groundwater

Ramachandraiya B G, former director of GDKGA, contextualises the problem. Although there are more than 30 lakh borewells in Karnataka, the department does not have data on the number of defunct or open borewells in the state. More than 85 per cent of the borewells in Karnataka are used for agricultural purposes, while 8-10 per cent are used for drinking water purposes. Only 2-3 per cent of borewells are used for commercial or industrial purposes.

Karnataka Minister of Minor Irrigation, N S Boseraju, says it is challenging for the government to collate details of borewells that are located in private agricultural lands and houses. “We have formed a committee and vigilance teams to monitor borewells being dug across the state. However, individuals do hire private borewell agencies. There have also been instances where farmers have taken permission to dig one borewell and ended up with several on their farms,” he says.

According to the state minor irrigation department’s 2023 report, 44 taluks in Karnataka have over-exploited groundwater resources, 12 taluks were in the critical zone, 32 taluks in the semi-critical zone and 146 taluks were safe. However, this data is fluctuating and depends upon the arrival and intensity of monsoons.

Ramachandraiya says the dependency on borewells, especially for agricultural purposes, has increased over the last two to three decades. “We are extracting more than what is being recharged. We have reached a situation where the first three layers of the aquifer have been completely extracted. People are drawing water from the fourth and fifth aquifers which are at least 800-900 ft below the soil. This is dangerous as anything at this depth is not safe for use,” he says.

Lake and tank filling activities might have improved the groundwater table to a limited extent, however, there is a fear that the groundwater sources may be contaminated. Many lakes are being filled with treated wastewater and “if the groundwater gets contaminated, then there is no way we can purify it,” he says.

Ramachandraiya says modernisation of agriculture, where drip and sprinkle irrigation is made mandatory for farmers depending on groundwater for cultivation, is the need of the hour. Compulsory rainwater harvesting for recharging borewells in urban areas should be introduced and implemented strictly, he adds.

In January this year, Indira Tabiyad, from Rajasthan, fell into the 540-foot-long borewell and got stuck at 490 feet. After hours of rescue efforts undertaken by the fire brigade, NDRF, and Border Security Force, among other agencies. While the rescuers were able to pull her out, she did not survive the ordeal.

A year ago, two-and-a-half-year-old Anjal Sakhra of Dwarka district, Gujarat, was killed after getting trapped in a borewell located in front of her house. The rescuers pulled her out after a nine-hour rescue operation, but the doctors declared her dead.

Similarly in Madhya Pradesh on December 28, ten-year-old Sumit Meena lost his life after he slipped into a borewell in Guna district.

In Rajasthan, three-year-old Chetna was pulled out from a 170-foot deep borewell after ten days of rescue work, making it one of the longest rescue operations in the country. Chetna did not survive the accidental fall and resulting entrapment.

Similarly, Tamil Nadu witnessed 12 incidents of children falling into abandoned or open borewells since 2009. Only four individuals were rescued alive. The last death to be reported was in 2019 when two-year-old Sujith Wilson fell into an open borewell in the Tiruchirapalli district. Despite several efforts by rescuers, who worked for over 80 hours, they were only able to pull out the child’s lifeless body.

Local bodies

The death triggered a major row since it took place even after state legislation was enacted, mandating that local bodies ensure that abandoned or open borewells are closed.

The callousness of local bodies came to the fore after district administrations, in the aftermath of Wilson’s tragic death, launched a drive to close abandoned borewells. “Thousands of borewells were found to be left open, without any lid, during the drive. The district collectors had to monitor the drive despite a law. It is the responsibility of the local bodies to identify such structures and close them. Since then, the monitoring has become a little strict but things still call for improvement,” a senior government official tells DH.

Government authorities then filled up abandoned wells to the ground level using clay, sand, and boulders. “What became clear then was the gaps in implementing a law,” the official adds.

Since then, the chief secretary of the state has written periodical letters to district collectors, asking them to identify abandoned open wells, borewells and quarries that pose a threat to humans, especially children, and animals.

“We ask the collectors to conduct comprehensive surveys to identify all abandoned quarry pits, open wells and borewells periodically and review them regularly to see whether they remain closed,” the official says.

After Sujith Wilson’s death, the government proposed a hackathon to find a working model to rescue children stuck in borewells or tunnels, but nothing came out of that announcement. The government has struggled to find a solution to such accidents.

In 2020, a group of youngsters in Tamil Nadu came up with the idea to put abandoned borewells to effective use by converting them into rainwater harvesting structures. This helped many save rainwater as well as protect children from accidental falls.

Boseraju says that the Karnataka government has taken up the issue of children falling into open borewells seriously and decided to hold agencies (be it government or private) that dug the borewells responsible for any tragedies. “The new amendments give the government power to punish the violating agencies with one year of imprisonment and Rs 25,000 fine,” he says. This measure aims to increase accountability and also provide guidelines to prevent future accidents.

(With inputs from E T B Sivapriyan in Chennai)