NEW DELHI: Indian police said on Thursday they have launched an investigation after a newborn baby was found alive and well in a wooden box floating on the Ganges river.

The inside of the box was lined with red cloth and contained images of Hindu gods as well as a horoscope giving the date and time of the girl’s birth and name, Ganga — the Hindi word for the holy river.

The child, thought to be around a month old, was recovered earlier this week in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh by a man in a boat in bushes at the river’s edge.

“It is difficult to ascertain how long she had been floating in the river.

The boatman heard a sound coming from the box and that’s how he found the baby,” local police official O. P. Singh said.

“The baby is fine and is currently receiving medical attention. The government will take care of everything,” Singh said. “We are trying to figure out where she came from.”

Published in Dawn, June 18th, 2021