‘Mowgli’ Girl Found Living With Monkeys In An Indian Forest

First Posted: Apr 08, 2017 07:01 AM EDT
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A young girl was discovered living among monkeys in a forest in India. The girl, thought to be around 8-12 years of age, was found naked and emaciated in northern India’s Katarniaghat forest range by officials.

According to The Independent report, woodcutters had alerted authorities about the presence of a disheveled and unkempt girl with wounds on her body. When the officials approached the girl, she started to screech. The monkeys nearby surrounded her, as if the girl was one of their own.

Authorities finally took the young girl to a hospital in Bahraich, a town that is part of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. For the past two months, the girl has been receiving medical treatment. However, the chief medical superintendent of the hospital has pointed out that the girl’s behavior is still erratic. She takes to running around on her arms and legs and eats food directly off the floor with her mouth.

“Based on her behavioral patterns, it’s likely that she could have lived with the monkeys since she was an infant,” said Dinesh Tripathi, a police officer from Bahraich, in a statement to The New Indian Express. At present, police are investigating how the girl get into the forest and who are her parents. Until she is identified, the girl will be sent to live in a home for juveniles.

Not surprisingly, comparisons have been drawn between the girl and Mowgli, the famous feral child from English author Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. According to an earlier report, as released by The Washington Post, anthropologist Mary-Ann Ochota -- who has studied three similar cases of feral children in Fiji, Ukraine and Uganda -- said that these kids are often a source of secrecy or shame within a family or community. Therefore, such instances are not the happy stories from books but rather harrowing cases of abuse and neglect.

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