Half-eaten by stray dogs, body of newborn recovered from garbage dump in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi

Lucknow: In what can only be seen as a blow to humanity, the body of a newborn baby was found in a garbage dump in Uttar Pradesh's Hardoi district on Friday. Once alerted, police officials arrived at the scene and recovered the body of the child. An investigation has been ordered into the incident and further details are awaited as the police continue to make inquiries in this regard.

Police officials familiar with the incident said that a call was received by the control room regarding the body of a newborn in a garbage dump near the District Hospital in Hardoi. A team was dispatched to the spot and found stray dogs nibbling away at the body. The body has been sent for post-mortem and efforts are underway to identify and locate the parents of the child. Once found, they will be booked under relevant sections of the Indian Penal Code.

In the past, several such incidents have come to light from various parts of the country. Most recently, the body of a newborn was recovered from a drain in Haryana's Kaithal after locals spotted the child wrapped in plastic. Footage retrieved from CCTV cameras installed in the area later showed the child's mother dumping her into the drain and walking away. Incidentally, it was street dogs who pulled the newborn's body out of the drain and brought it to the attention of bystanders.

Similarly, a newborn was rescued by locals in Dasna area of Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year. The woman who spotted the child claimed that it was wrapped in a gunny bag and surrounded by stray dogs when she realised that it was a child inside the bag. The woman took the child home but had to hand it over to Ghaziabad Police after the matter was reported. Speaking to media outlets, the woman said that she intended to adopt the child and had approached authorities for the same.

In March of this year, a newborn was dragged and killed by stray dogs in Jalalabad block of Shahjahanpur district in the state after she was thrown in a garbage dump by her parents. At the time it was found, the child was covered in a single piece of cloth. This was the second such incident to have come to light from Jalalabad where locals found a newborn abandoned in the biting cold. The baby was later rescued and police officials managed to trace his 28-year-old mother and 30-year-old father.