Indian toddler dies after being stuck in well for five days

A two-year-old Indian boy, who was trapped in a well in Tamil Nadu state for five days, was found dead on Tuesday.

Sujith Wilson fell into an abandoned well in Nadukattupatti of the Tiruchirappalli district while playing with friends on Friday evening.

The Commissioner of Revenue Administration J Radhakrishnan told local media that Wilson’s body was “dismembered” and in a “highly decomposed” state.

According to authorities, only a few parts of the toddler’s body were retrieved.

“Efforts are on to retrieve the mortal remains of the child,” Radhakrishnan said on Tuesday.

Officials had expressed concern as Wilson had been trapped in the bore-well without food and water.

A massive drilling operation at the site to rescue Wilson was undertaken but proved difficult due to the rocky nature of the site’s terrain, local media reported.  

In the past few years, cases of children falling in open wells have been recorded across India.

Illegal drilling to extract water in areas where groundwater is depleting has often been cited for the presence of these wells. 

In June, a two-year-old child died after he fell in a borewell for nearly 110 hours in Sangrur, Punjab.