With the summer season at its peak in the district, open wells in the city are posing a danger to both animals and children alike. With increasing heat, many go near the well looking for water and often slip and fall. With many wells running as deep as 50 ft to 75 ft without proper steps to access them, rescues without professional help become virtually impossible. Animal welfare organizations say they have requested the local bodies repeatedly to close such open wells.
On Monday alone, the fire and rescue services received four phone calls for rescues from wells. District officer of Fire and Rescue Services S R Chandran said, "We received calls for a dog, a calf and two children who fell into wells. The dog and the calf had fallen into dry wells, requiring us to send our vans," he said. It is only the fire services that have the long ladders required to perform such rescues where access is difficult. One of the animals was a small puppy which fell into a dry well in Krishnaswamy Nagar. It was almost three hours before it was rescued.
According to the data available with the district administration, there are at least 1,056 open wells on public land and 2,351 such wells on private land. So far, only 321 borewell on public land and 606 wells on private land have been closed. They are not only without parapet walls around them but mostly have no water, thus being useless. In fact in September last year, a 15-year-old boy from Kuniamuthur lost his life after falling into such a well. " Many children while chasing their pets or friend do not even notice their feet losing ground and fall inside, other want to take a dip thinking the climb back will be easy but unfortunately isn't," said Chandran. Even in January this year, a 35-year-old mentally-ill woman and her one-and-a-half year old son were found dead inside a dry well in Karamadai.
According to Section 143 of Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994, if a well or hole lacks protection or enclosure and poses danger to the public, the civic authorities should issue notice to the owner to fill the well or hole. If immediate action is necessary, the officials themselves should take measures to prevent danger and recover the cost from the owner.
Many animals also tend to fall inside wells while just following some scent or while chasing each other. City-based Humane Animal Society (HAS) has rescued at least 10 dogs that have fallen in the wells in the past five years. "Many country dogs who just sniff out food or any scent often just follow it and trip and fall into the well. This is likely to happen to blind dogs or even normal dogs at night at places with dense overgrowth," said HAS founder Mini Vasudevan. "We have repeatedly asked the corporation to close such open wells," she said.
Animal rescuers say they try rescuing the animals themselves if the spot has a place where you can tie a strong rope to and the well itself is not too deep. "But otherwise we have to depend on the fire and rescue services who do a great job rescuing the animals, but getting hold of them is very difficult. While they rush to rescue a child or person, for an animal they take around three hours to come," said Vasudevan.
In November last year, a tipper lorry fell into a 150 ft deep well in Pannimadai and the driver had a miraculous escape. The tipper which was trying to fill the well with sand, skid over a stone and fell into the well.
The state government officials, on their part, have instructed that all open wells should have parapet walls and should be covered with mesh. Assistant director in charge of panchayats Karuppiah said the drive to identify abandoned wells and dry borewells in rural areas was a continuous process and is still ongoing. "Though we keep closing wells with a mesh covering in phases as and when funds from village panchayats come through, new ones which we did not know about keep coming up. Some of them are deep interior into farms and waste land. As and when they come we identify, inspect them and put them into a list of wells to be closed."
On Monday alone, the fire and rescue services received four phone calls for rescues from wells. District officer of Fire and Rescue Services S R Chandran said, "We received calls for a dog, a calf and two children who fell into wells. The dog and the calf had fallen into dry wells, requiring us to send our vans," he said. It is only the fire services that have the long ladders required to perform such rescues where access is difficult. One of the animals was a small puppy which fell into a dry well in Krishnaswamy Nagar. It was almost three hours before it was rescued.
According to the data available with the district administration, there are at least 1,056 open wells on public land and 2,351 such wells on private land. So far, only 321 borewell on public land and 606 wells on private land have been closed. They are not only without parapet walls around them but mostly have no water, thus being useless. In fact in September last year, a 15-year-old boy from Kuniamuthur lost his life after falling into such a well. " Many children while chasing their pets or friend do not even notice their feet losing ground and fall inside, other want to take a dip thinking the climb back will be easy but unfortunately isn't," said Chandran. Even in January this year, a 35-year-old mentally-ill woman and her one-and-a-half year old son were found dead inside a dry well in Karamadai.
According to Section 143 of Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act 1994, if a well or hole lacks protection or enclosure and poses danger to the public, the civic authorities should issue notice to the owner to fill the well or hole. If immediate action is necessary, the officials themselves should take measures to prevent danger and recover the cost from the owner.
Many animals also tend to fall inside wells while just following some scent or while chasing each other. City-based Humane Animal Society (HAS) has rescued at least 10 dogs that have fallen in the wells in the past five years. "Many country dogs who just sniff out food or any scent often just follow it and trip and fall into the well. This is likely to happen to blind dogs or even normal dogs at night at places with dense overgrowth," said HAS founder Mini Vasudevan. "We have repeatedly asked the corporation to close such open wells," she said.
Animal rescuers say they try rescuing the animals themselves if the spot has a place where you can tie a strong rope to and the well itself is not too deep. "But otherwise we have to depend on the fire and rescue services who do a great job rescuing the animals, but getting hold of them is very difficult. While they rush to rescue a child or person, for an animal they take around three hours to come," said Vasudevan.
In November last year, a tipper lorry fell into a 150 ft deep well in Pannimadai and the driver had a miraculous escape. The tipper which was trying to fill the well with sand, skid over a stone and fell into the well.
The state government officials, on their part, have instructed that all open wells should have parapet walls and should be covered with mesh. Assistant director in charge of panchayats Karuppiah said the drive to identify abandoned wells and dry borewells in rural areas was a continuous process and is still ongoing. "Though we keep closing wells with a mesh covering in phases as and when funds from village panchayats come through, new ones which we did not know about keep coming up. Some of them are deep interior into farms and waste land. As and when they come we identify, inspect them and put them into a list of wells to be closed."