A premature baby who was found hours from death buried alive in a clay pot in a shallow grave has made a miracle recovery.
The 30-week-old baby girl was found by a villager who happened to be burying his own stillborn daughter in north India in October.
The unnamed villager said he had dug about three-feet below the surface and stopped when his shovel broke a clay pot.
He retrieved the pot to find a newborn crying inside.
The baby girl was taken to local government hospital and later transferred to a paediatric hospital.
Dr Ravi Khanna said the newborn, weighed only 2.4lbs, suffered from hypothermia and low blood sugar when she was first found.
Nurse have been monitoring the baby closely and she has now gained weight with healthy vital signs.
He told BBC : "On Tuesday, when we handed her over to the district hospital authorities, she weighed 2.57kg [5.66lb].
"She's accepting bottle feed and she is now totally healthy."
Dr Khaana said the baby might not have survived if she was found an hour or two hours later.
It's unclear how long the baby lay buried underground but the medical experts guessed she might have been buried for as long as 'three to four days, surviving on her own fat'.
He explained that babies are born with fat on their abdomen, thigh and cheek and they can survive on it in an emergency for some time.
An airy pocket inside the pot could be another factor that saved the baby as it provided her with oxygen or to allow oxygen to filter in through the loose soil.
The baby is now in the custody of child welfare authorities in Bareilly district, in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.
Authorities have decided to put her up for adoption after a long search for her parents.
Police said they have launched an investigation and started looking for the parents.
They believed the baby girl was dumped as 'unwanted foetus' given girls are seen as a financial burden in Indian families.
