Chhindwara (MP), Sept 23: A three-day-old baby was miraculously rescued from beneath a stone in Chhindwara district’s Nandanwadi forest after being abandoned by his parents, police said on Monday.
The infant, left overnight on the cold forest floor and bitten by ants, survived near suffocation before villagers, alerted by his cries at dawn, pulled him out alive. “We thought it was an animal, but then saw tiny hands struggling under a stone. No parent should do this,” a villager recounted.
Police identified the parents as Bablu Dandoliya, a government teacher, and his wife Rajkumari Dandoliya, who allegedly left the baby in the forest because he was their fourth child. Fearing Bablu’s dismissal under government rules discouraging employees from having more than two children, the couple had concealed the pregnancy.
Rajkumari reportedly delivered the baby at home on September 23. Within hours, the newborn was carried to the forest and pinned beneath a stone.
Doctors at Chhindwara district hospital said the baby was suffering from ant bites and hypothermia but is now safe and under medical supervision. “His survival is nothing short of miraculous. Exposure overnight in this condition is usually fatal,” a pediatrician said.
Police have registered a case under Section 93 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for child abandonment. “We are consulting senior officers. Further sections, including 109 BNS (attempt to murder), may be added after legal review,” said SDOP Kalyani Barkade.
According to NCRB data, Madhya Pradesh consistently records the highest number of abandoned newborns in the country, driven by poverty, stigma, and regressive fears linked to jobs and family size. Experts, however, described this case as especially chilling since it involved an educated family making a deliberate choice to abandon their child. (Agencies)
