In bid to retrieve lota, man & son suffocate to death in well

DALTONGANJ: A father and son suffocated to death inside a dry well while attempting to retrieve a stainless steel 'lota' (a small, rounded vessel) in Sahiyara village of Jharkhand's Palamu district on Monday.The deceased were identified as Jugal Rajwar (65) and Munna (37). According to locals, the vessel belonging to Jugal had accidentally fallen into the well, which was filled with rotten mahua fruits and debris.Munna climbed down using a rope to retrieve the pot. However, as he began to ascend with it, he reportedly lost consciousness and fell back into the well. Seeing this, Jugal went down the well in an attempt to rescue his son but also lost consciousness and died due to toxic gases inside."It was a challenging task to extract the bodies from a narrow, dirt-filled well," said Sonu Kumar Choudhury, OC of Hussainabad PS. "Terrified villagers refused to enter even with safety gear. The bodies were finally pulled out using an iron rod and rope." The well was later flattened and filled with soil to prevent further mishaps.