Cats Gathered Around Sewage Drain. Inside: a Newborn Girl

Girl named 'Pari' has been moved from Mumbai hospital to shelter
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 18, 2021 1:00 PM CST
Cats Gathered Around Sewage Drain. Inside: a Newborn Girl
An officer holds an abandoned baby found Sunday in a Mumbai drain, who’s been given the name Pari.   (Mumbai Police)

A newborn baby girl has found a home in a shelter in India after being pulled "from a drain where she was left to die," the BBC reports. Mumbai police said "neighborhood cats created a ruckus" before someone spotted the 5-day-old infant in the drain in a suburban Mumbai neighborhood on Sunday, per CNN. Police said the infant was "soaked in sewage water" and had been in the drain with "a thin flow of water" for at least an hour, per the BBC and Times of India. She was freezing and her arms had turned blue, police constable Sheetal Sonawane told the Times.

However, the newborn was "completely fine" when admitted to Mumbai's Rajawadi Hospital, medical superintendent Vidya Thakur told CNN. The child was monitored before being discharged Wednesday. She's been named Pari, which translates to fairy, per the Times. She's now being cared for at a shelter, according to police, who are looking for her parents. While officers did not speculate about why the girl was in the drain, the BBC notes the abandonment or killing of newborn girls is "not uncommon" in the country, where there is a general preference for sons. (A baby girl was previously found buried alive.)

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