Overview

• Six villagers descended into a waterlogged well in Dharnavada village to save a trapped calf; five lost consciousness and one emerged alive
• Rescue teams from the State Disaster Emergency Response Force, GAIL’s CISF unit and local police spent over two hours retrieving all six men using oxygen equipment, ropes and a cot
• Authorities suspect carbon monoxide or another toxic gas in the 70-foot-deep shaft and have sent water and gas samples for laboratory analysis to determine the exact cause
• The deceased—Siddharth Saharia, Gurudayal Ojha, Shivcharan Sahu, Sonu Kushwaha and Mannu Kushwaha—were local residents aged between 25 and 40
• The incident echoes April’s Khandwa tragedy, in which eight rescuers died in a similar well accident, and has renewed calls for standardised safety protocols in rural animal rescues