After a 40-hour-long search, the body of the 17-year-old boy who slipped and fell into a well in GV Residency on the Independence Day, was finally recovered, thanks to the special scuba diving team from Tuticorin.

The body of S. Harish, a Class XII student who fell in the well was recovered around 7.25 am on Wednesday by the team that arrived in Coimbatore early in the morning today. The team of pearl divers took less than an hour’s time to recover the body, a task that the search and operation team, and their gadgets couldn’t accomplish in two days.

Equipment including five waterproof cameras, thermal imagers, water suckers, crane, and backhoe loaders were used in the search operations. Personnel from the fire service, the police department, the Indian Navy and Army were deployed in the search.

Despite hurdles, like shortage of equipment and protest of the well-owner, the search, overseen by the Corporation Commissioner K. Vijaya Karthikeyan, went on until the body was recovered.

Harish, a student of the National Model School, fell into the well while he was allegedly trying to take a selfie near it. According to his friends, Harish did not know swimming, but was there to bathe along with his friends.

The body was sent to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital for post mortem and is likely to be taken to a village in the Nilgiris district for the last rites, police said.