Daringbadi/Brahmanigaon: A 25-day-old boy miraculously survived a cold night after being dumped by his parents in the forest and left for dead.
The little one was found in the forest by Dinabandhu Sethy of Brahamanigaon village under Daringbadi police limits in Kandhamal district Friday.
While going to relieve himself in the forest, Sethy heard the cries of the baby and found him dumped on a heap of cow dung near a canal.
The baby had survived the cold throughout Thursday night. Sethy rescued the baby and took him home. His family gave the boy a bath, fed it and covered him with warm clothes before lodging a complaint with the local police outpost.
With the help of local Anganwadi worker Jayanti Mallick and Sunam Nayak, Sethy approached the ASI Pramod Kumar Deep who admitted the baby to Brahmanigaon Community Health Centre (CHC) for treatment.
Meanwhile, Ranjita Parichha and Magdeswar Mallick of Nuagaon village under Brahmanigaon panchayat reached the police station and claimed they are the boy’s parents. Their claim incensed the rescuers who demanded action against the two for neglecting the child.
“The child could have died in the winter. We don’t think the child is in safe hands. Today, they had dumped the baby on cow dung in a forest and left it to die. Who knows they might kill the baby any day,” the agitators claimed as they staged a sit-in protest against handing over the baby to the claimants.
The protesters claimed that the baby’s mother had earlier dumped the baby outside in a forest. Women, including former sarpanch Kageri Pradhan, Arati Nayak, Hemalata Nayak, Kuni Uthansingh and family members of Sethy demanded the baby be handed over to the child protection unit.
Tension was continuing till the time of filing this report. Meanwhile, the baby’s mother claimed that her husband was an alcoholic that created a rift in the family. This tiff between the couple had been cited as the reason for deserting the baby in the forest. PNN
