From acquiring obligatory permissions from college students’ dad and mom and the related Head of Division (HOD) to choosing excavation websites away from visitors and designing wider trenches for secure entry and exit of the analysis group — a committee arrange by the Indian Institute of Know-how (IIT) Delhi to check the ditch collapse at Lothal (Gujarat) that killed PhD scholar Surabhi Verma late final 12 months has really helpful a sequence of recent security measures for future fieldwork, The Indian Specific has realized.
Nevertheless, whereas noting the absence of “obligatory SOP or Security Protocols” and an absence of acceptable discipline images to doc website situations, the committee concluded that the ditch “was not so deep” and its collapse was “merely an accident.”
On November 27, Surabhi, a 26-year-old PhD scholar at IIT Delhi’s Centre for Atmospheric Sciences, died when a trench she was working in for her venture on paleoclimatology close to the Harappan website of Lothal in Gujarat collapsed on her. Whereas Surabhi was buried alive, her information, Affiliate Professor Yama Dixit, was happily pulled out of the ditch. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) later clarified that the pit had been dug exterior the protected space — round 45 metres past the boundary of the Lothal protected website — and with out its authorisation.
Following the incident, IIT Delhi established a three-member committee — chaired by Javed N. Malik of IIT Kanpur, with Hema Achyuthan of Anna College and Deepankar Choudhury of IIT Bombay as members — on March 12, 2025, and tasked it with analyzing the “working process and protocols noticed through the current discipline journey to Lothal just about customary practices,” and suggesting “adjustments to procedures and protocols (if any) that may strengthen the protection of such analysis.”
The committee met twice — on April 20 and April 24, 2025 — and was tasked to submit its report in a time of 1 month since its structure, The Indian Specific has realized.
The IIT Delhi committee is realized to have flagged three key observations in its report. It famous the absence of any “obligatory SOP or Security Protocols” for excavating shallow trenches. The committee’s capacity to evaluate the incident and counsel enhancements was additionally hampered by the dearth of acceptable discipline images documenting the ditch or trenches excavated through the Lothal fieldwork. Based mostly on inputs from IIT Delhi, the ditch in query was positioned in an “alluvial plain space with a dimension of 10 ft. deep, 5 ft. vast, and 10 ft. lengthy.” The panel famous that Prof. V.N. Prabhakar of IIT Gandhinagar — a former ASI official — “had acceptable expertise in excavating such shallow trenches” and a “collaborator of Prof Dixit for the reason that previous two years”
Nonetheless, it concluded that “the ditch was not so deep” and that its collapse was “merely an accident.”
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To deal with the gaps recognized, the committee made the next key suggestions:
1. Securing “acceptable permissions” — together with No Objection Certificates from dad and mom, the Head of Division, the establishment, and related native authorities — previous to any discipline investigation.
2. Deciding on excavation websites “away from the highway” to keep away from vibrations from heavy visitors.
3. Designing trenches “wider — not less than 3.5–4 m vast” to permit secure entry and exit for the analysis group.
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4. Sustaining “steady watch… figuring out the event of extensional cracks” throughout and after excavation to forestall trench collapse.
5. Quick elimination of excavated materials from trench peripheries to forestall loading of trench partitions.
6. Setting up trench partitions with slight inclines and constructing “secure steps/ramps for simple motion.”
IIT Delhi didn’t reply to queries by The Indian Specific on the motion taken on the committee’s suggestions.
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Nearly 4 months after the incident, Ahmedabad Rural Police filed an FIR towards Prof. Dixit on March 23, 2025, based mostly on a criticism from Verma’s father, Ram Khelawan Verma, a authorities trainer in Uttar Pradesh. Based on the FIR, Verma and Dixit — together with Prof. V.N. Prabhakar and Shikha Rai of IIT Gandhinagar — had excavated a trench described as “13 toes in size, 4 toes in width, and 10 toes in depth” close to the Lothal website utilizing a “Hitachi” machine.
Prof. Dixit has been booked below Sections 106(1) (inflicting dying by negligence) and 125(a) (endangering life or private security of others) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).
In a letter dated December 5, 2024, IIT Gandhinagar knowledgeable ASI that it was not formally concerned within the venture. “IIT Gandhinagar was not concerned within the involved venture… it was not a collaborative venture,” the institute said, including that media stories describing a “four-member group” have been inaccurate. The institute additional stated that two members of their Archaeological Sciences Centre, Prof. V.N. Prabhakar and Dr. Shikha Rai, have been current merely as acquaintances…and to increase native help similar to transport..they have been neither a part of…the venture nor accumulating any soil samples.”
“When the pit collapsed, Prof. Prabhakar jumped into the pit in an try to rescue the trapped members of the IIT Delhi group. His makes an attempt to rescue Prof. Yama Dixit and the scholar with out considerations of impending hazard on his personal life are positively praiseworthy. Sadly, he couldn’t extricate the scholar, who died out of this incident,” it stated.
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Chatting with The Indian Specific, Rajat Moona, Director IIT Gandhinagar stated ” “The venture was not an official collaboration between IIT Delhi and IIT Gandhinagar. Some colleagues from IIT Gandhinagar occurred to be within the space and prolonged logistical and transportation help. Since this was not an official venture of IIT Gandhinagar, the institute didn’t conduct any inquiry into the matter. This stays the institute’s formal place.”