New Delhi: Professor M Manikandan, who runs Madurai Rescue Team, created a robot to help rescueing kids from borewell.
But his robot failed to prove its worth, when it failed to rescue a four year old girl, Akshata, who fell in 60ft deep borewell in Karnataka's Bijapur district, who died during this failed rescue operation.
Manikandan created this robot along with his two friends after he came across a similar incident in 2003 where he managed to avert his own son from falling into a borewell.
The borewell robot which has nine-foot mechanical arm with finger-like projections to clutch objects, and is operated by electricity and battery, can be inserted into deep and narrow pits.
But despite of all these specifications, the borewell robot failed to rescue the girl alive.
The 48-hour-long operation ended in tragedy with rescuers retrieved the girl's lifeless body from borewell.
"Time is the most crucial factor in such rescue efforts. Every minute counts just like in road accidents,'' said M Vallarasu, part of Manikandan's team as the team regretted of not being able to save the girl.
