Five days after the disaster, rescuers have struggled to locate the excavator operator who was trapped under debris following a cave-in at a water project site in Maharashtra`s Palghar district. Despite 24-hour attempts by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and other rescue teams, neither the operator nor the machine has been located.

The operator was trapped after the earth and wall construction collapsed while working on a tunnel shaft at the Surya water supply project site in Sasun Navghar village, about 50 kilometres from Mumbai, at 9 pm on May 29, reported PTI.