Saving ‘Babba’ prince
Indian Army : The Safest Hands

Haldaheri, abutting the Grand Trunk road, nearly 200 Km North of Delhi was a little known village until Friday, 21 July 2006. Prince, a toddler of four, changed it all that evening. For almost 48 hours thereafter, Prince and this village was in media glare in almost all electronic channels (including BBC & CNN). It also made the lead story for all Indian news dailies. While essentials were already known, I set out to get a first hand account of the efforts by the Army to rescue Prince and meet the hero of this story.

At Ambala, the headquarters of Indian Army’s Kharga Corps, Col SK Vidyarthi, the newly appointed Commanding Officer of 65 Engineer Regiment, ably assisted by Lt Col AK Das, his Second-in–Command gave me a blow by blow account of all that went to rescue Prince. But before that, a little more about Prince.


Prince – The 'Babba'

A baby boy born on 22 June 2002 to Ramchandar, a farm hand and Karamjeet was named Prince – a rather unusual name. This child was just like any other in the village, but with one exception – he abhorred wearing clothes even during peak of winters. His condition to wear clothes was simple – a one rupee coin so as to buy hard boiled sweets from the village shop. For unknown reasons, Prince was nick named Babba (possibly meaning the revered) by his friends.

On the fateful evening of 21 July 2006, Prince when asked to wear his clothes, demanded one rupee coin from his mother. On being handed over the same, he ran out to the grocer's shop wearing just his under pants. When at the grocer's shop, a rat ran out towards a well near by, Little Prince, for the fun of it, chased the rat which first ran towards the well and then to a sand filled gunny bag covering the pit of an abandoned dry borewell. Prince put his little feet on this gunny bag which suddenly sank into the pit, with Prince atop it. Angrez (another unusual name !!), a friend of Prince, ran back to inform Karamjeet of this incident. It took a while to realise that Prince – the Babba, had slid down the pit which was less than a foot in diameter but over 53 feet deep. In no time a motley group of villagers gathered to assess the situation.


While the Police and District Administration headed by Shri Trilok Kumar Sharma, the District Collector of Kurukshetra were informed later in the evening, the latter rushed to the village to assess the situation. After their efforts to winch out Prince from the pit failed, the villagers set about digging an adjoining dried up well (see sketch). Though the villagers dug through the night, the progress was rather slow. To speed up the process and save the life of Prince, Army's help was called for at noon on Saturday, 22 July 2006.

The 'Army - Act'

While Col Vidyarthi was on an inspection of the Regiment, Lt Col Das, the Second-in-Command of 65 Engineer Regiment, a regiment with a specialized role, received the message for aid. Wasting no time, the unit dispatched Capt Pankaj Upadhyay to Haldaheri about 16 Kms south of Ambala. By this time, a large number of television channels had swooped down to cover the event and every move of the Army was under media glare.

As per Col Vidyarthi, the first task was to ensure the physical and psychological well being of Prince. This was ensured by various means – pumping in oxygen, ensuring circulation of fresh air by fans and constant reassurance from the father of Prince. A television camera was lowered into the pit so as to monitor the well being of the child. To offset the damp conditions in the pit, a light bulb was utilized. Water and energy giving food items like chocolates were also lowered in the pit by improvised means. All this while, Ramchandar kept reassuring his son not to loose heart.

In the meantime, Shri TK Sharma, the widely respected District Collector ensured that all these needs were immediately made available. With his long years of administrative experience, he too gave very valuable tips to ensure success. Incidentally he, just as the rescuers from the Army, ate little or nothing for over 36 hours of the rescue operation.

Dig – boy – dig

While ensuring the physical and psychological well being of Prince, the officers and men of 65 Engineer Regiment simultaneously carried out an assessment of the situation and took over the deepening of the well adjacent to borewell pit to the same length as of the pit. This was done with relative ease and good speed till the depth of 40 feet, where the lining of the well finished. Beyond this, there was a layer of clay which considerably slowed down the digging. The following patch of loose sand eased the digging effort but posed the danger of caving in. This was prevented by lining the wall of the well with a pipe like structure, which was fabricated in situ. Despite these challenges, the desired depth of 53 feet was reached by early hours of Sunday, 23 July 2006. At this stage, there was a lateral distance of seven and half feet between the rescuers in the well and Prince in the pit. For achieving success thus far, Capt Upadhyay was lowered into the well several times. He supervised every little move inside the well.

The Greater Challenge

At this stage, in their exuberance, the TV channels pronounced that Prince would be rescued in an hour or two. They little realised that digging of a connecting tunnel is more challenging and time consuming as compared to deepening of the well. A small mistake in alignment at this stage would have resulted in a set back in terms of early rescue of Prince. It was also to be ensured that in the process, Prince did not get harmed. Meanwhile, the Army Chief, Gen JJ Singh spoke to Col Vidyarthi over the telephone. While lauding the achivement of the regiment so far, he directed that no efforts be spared to save the little boy. He went on to add that he was confident that come what may, 65 Engineer Regiment will succeed in rescuing Prince.

Shri Shrivastav, an engineer from Delhi had by then reached the village on his own. He rendered valuable guidance and help in the tunneling which involved revetment by reinforced prefabricated steel shell, using jacks. All this while, crane supervisor Sub Onkar Singh and Hav KK Das worked untiringly to ensure continuous and speedy removal of loose earth and lowering of various equipment into the well.



It took the better part of the day to reach Prince. Once the tunnel was made, because of fright, Prince would not move towards the waiting arms of rescuers in the connecting tunnel. Finally, he was gently grabbed and brought up the well in the safe hands of Capt Upadhyay While the cheers of the crowds ranted the air, Maj Gen Gautam Banerjee, CE of the Chandimandir based Western Command of the Indian Army, handed over Prince to his mother. The nation applauded the Army's success. Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee was also extremely appreciative of Army's efforts and the Army Chief, Gen JJ Singh sent in his shabash. Lt Gen Daljeet Singh, GOC-in-C, Western Command visited the regiment to compliment all ranks.

Meanwhile, for all ranks of 65 Engineers Regiment, it was another task, successfully accomplished. Raised in 1974, this regiment's motto is Prashikshan – Hoshi - Tezi. Its logo is LXV, which when read forward reads 65 and when read in reverse means “We Excel''. This regiment also has the privilege of having five second generation young officers including Capt Pankaj Upadhyay, the hero of the rescue mission. The last major accomplishment of this glorious regiment was erecting a 50 Km long fence along the LoC for which it was awarded the unit appreciation by GOC-in-C, Northern Command.

When asked for her reaction, Anuradha, the newly wed wife of Capt Upadhyay said that she was apprehensive to begin with but was also sure that her husband would deliver. Meanwhile, Anamika, the daughter of Lt Col Das offered to give away her treasured toys for Prince.



Throughout the rescue operation, the regiment received valuable guidance from Maj Gen Gautam Banerjee, CE of Western Command, Brig V Menon, CE of the Kharga Corps and Brig PK Mangal, the Engineer Brigade Commander.

At the time of filing this story, Prince was recuperating in Government Civil Hospital at Kurukshetra. The doctors led by CMO Kurukshetra, Shri Dr DS Saini were pleasantly surprised to find that Prince was unscathed, though a little dazzled. Awaiting the return of Prince, his friends from the village are camping at the hospital to enable his early psychological recovery from the trauma.

Party Time at Haldaheri !

A grand village feast, with artists from Kapurthala awaits the return of Prince. A sign board reading Haldaheri (Village of Prince) is to soon come up on the GT road to remind us of this brave lad. In the meantime both, the bore pit and the well, have been filled up. Interestingly, village elders have also warned children not to chase rats!

-Col Sudhir Sakhuja