Mumbai: Fire brigade, cops, construction men work 40 hrs to rescue dog in Wadala East

It took 40 long hours to rescue a four-year-old dog which fell into an open manhole at Wadala East. While the dog got stuck on Thursday morning, the fire brigade arrived on Friday morning but left without success after five-six hours. hours. It was animal lovers, Wadala Truck Terminal police and construction workers who dug up the drainage line and cut the iron pipes to rescue the dog from the gutter late Friday evening.

The incident took place near New Cuffe Parade gate no. 3. The rescue operation was conducted by animal lover Neeta Shetty, a feeder and founder of the NGO Hope for Indies, and her team. Shetty said, this was likely the first incidence of a dog falling into an open manhole. She also cited that every year there are incidents of people falling into such holes and even dying.

The dog, who was taken to WSD

Shetty told mid-day, "The dog is not from our area. As a feeder, I see the strays in the area regularly, but had never seen this dog before. It must have run away from another area. There is road construction work happening here and the development authority kept the manhole open. There are iron rods fixed in the gutter, which is 7-8 feet deep, where the dog got stuck. These rods made it impossible for us to go inside."

Shetty added, "The dog fell into the manhole around 7 am on Thursday. The security guard at the construction site saw it and tried to pull it out but failed. However, he gave food, water, and biscuits to the dog. On Friday morning, he informed Uma Gathani and Vinay Gathani, residents of the area. After they too did not succeed, they called me. I rushed to the spot and called the fire brigade around 8 am on Friday. A team of 7-8 fire brigade personnel also tried to rescue the dog for around 5-6 hours but failed and left."

The dog was rescued after a 40-hours rescue operation

"Then I called my team including Suresh Naidu, Siddhant Naidu, Aglesh, Tejas Surya and Yogesh Shinde and social worker Sadashiv Shetty and also called an ambulance and the Wadala TT police. The cops called all workers from a construction site to help with equipment and ordered them to dig the entire drainage and cut the iron rod inside the gutter line. The labourers cut the rods and removed the dog from the gutter after a 7-hour rescue operation," Shetty added.

Later, NGO Welfare of Stray Dogs took the dog for observation, treatment and sterilisation and then released it. The dog is now fine and fit. Animal rescuer Suresh Naidu said, "The dog was stuck inside two drainage pipes inside the gutter and there was no space for anyone to enter. We had to bring machines to drill into the concrete, which itself took two hours. It allowed a fire brigade official to enter and he used a noose to draw the dog out of the gutter as it had become aggressive owing to the trauma of being trapped for more than 40 hours."

Neeta Shetty, who mobilised the rescue

Shetty said, "People, too, have fallen into such open manholes due to negligence of the authorities. Police should take strict action against such people for keeping manholes open without safety precautions."

4 Years
Age of the stray dog