On Tuesday (9th April), 5 persons belonging to one family in the Vakadi village of Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district died after they jumped into an abandoned well where a slurry of biogas was dumped by a farmer. The five persons identified as Bablu Kale, Anil Kale, Manik Kale, Sandeep Kale, Vijay Kale, and Babasahed Gaikwad jumped into the well one behind another to save the life of a cat.
According to the reports, the victims entered the well in an attempt to save one another after one of them went inside to retrieve the fallen cat at about 5 p.m. on Tuesday. The abandoned well belonging to the family was filled with animal excretion which generated harmful chemicals resulting in impure air enough to breathe.
At around 5 pm, Bablu Kale (23) first got down in the well to save the cat, however, his relatives saw him drowning and struggling to survive. Then all his relatives including one neighbour jumped into the well one by one to save each other.
The villagers immediately reached the spot after they saw Kale’s family members struggling to survive in the abandoned well. They immediately moved to get people out of the pit. However, they could only save Vijay Kale (35) who now has been admitted to a local government hospital.
PI Dhananjay Jadhav commented on the case and said that the other remaining dead bodies were removed at around 12.30 am Wednesday. “Vijay Manik Kale (35), one of the victims who was pulled out of the well early and shifted to a government hospital, is now stable,” Jadhav added.
According to senior officials, the Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation has deployed two big suction pumps to remove the slurry and reach the victims.
Officials stated that large earthmovers had been dispatched to the site to remove the slurry and other waste items from the abandoned well. At the same time, five ambulances were stationed at the scene.
Earlier similar incidents
This is not just one kind of incident that has happened in Maharashtra. Recently, in the year 2023, 4 members including 3 from one family in Baramati died due to suffocation while cleaning a biogas plant in Khandaj village. The deceased had entered a British-era chamber that was filled with cow feces and urine. The chamber is located on the farm of Bhanudas Atole, one of the deceased.
The other deceased persons were identified as Prakash Sopan Atule, Pravin Bhanudas Atule, and Bapurao Lahuji Gavahne. Initially, Pravin Atule approached the Bio Gas tank located near their home to stir the cow dung slurry. However, after breathing the gas in the tank, he fell unconscious. As he did not return, his father, Bhanudas Atule, and other members entered the chamber one by one, passing out and falling into the pool of fluid that had gathered inside. They all perished from oxygen deprivation after inhaling gasoline inside the tank.
Earlier in November 2022, two workers died from suffocation while cleaning a sewage chamber at a private manufacturing factory of a multinational corporation (MNC) in Pune’s Ranjangaon industrial zone.
In October 2022, three workers died of apparent suffocation while cleaning the chamber of a sewage treatment plant (STP) at a private housing society in Wagholi, a suburb that has been integrated within the municipal limits of Pune.
In March 2022, four conservancy workers died from suffocation while cleaning a septic tank within a residential complex in Kadamvak Vasti near Loni Kalbhor, 14 kilometres from Pune.
