The baby arrived between stations

The mother says she fainted after unexpectedly giving birth, and the baby fell onto the tracks.

Relatives say they alerted railway officials and rescuers later managed to find the baby lying by the track, with her umbilical cord beside her.

Most Indian train toilets have a hole opening directly onto the tracks.

Though the baby survived the drop from the toilet, she is in intensive care because of her premature birth.

A doctor treating the baby at a hospital said the child had a low heart rate and body temperature.

They stopped the train and ran on the tracks to find the baby

Bhuri Kalbi

Baby's mother

"She was on the rail track for almost one-and-a-half to two hours," Dr Gautam Jain told the Associated Press news agency.

"We do not expect such children to survive," he is quoted as saying.

Another paediatrician, Dr Raj Kumar, told The Times of India newspaper: "She is a fighter. In just 12 hours after the unthinkable accident, she was coming out of the accident quite well."

Blue with cold

Bhuri Kalbi, the 33-year-old mother from a village in the state of Rajasthan, said that she fainted on the toilet after the birth.

"My delivery was so sudden," the mother of the infant, born two months prematurely, told reporters.

"I did not even realise that my child had slipped from the hole in the toilet and onto the railway tracks."

She said that it was a few minutes before she came round and alerted her family.

"They stopped the train and ran on the tracks to find the baby," she said, speaking from her hospital bed.

Railway staff at Amblisayan railway station in Rajasthan joined the search and eventually the newborn girl was found lying uninjured on pebbles by the track.

Rescuers said that she was found close to the railway line with her umbilical cord hanging by her side. She had turned blue because of the cold at night time.

Indian train toilets are notoriously unhygienic.

Users are typically required to stand or squat over a filthy chute that channels the effluent straight onto the tracks.