A Russian woman and her two young daughters were found living in a cave deep in the forests of southern India, according to local authorities.
The discovery came last week, inspectors said, as they were patrolling a landslide-prone forest in the southern Indian town of Gokarna, when one of the group members spotted a statue of a Hindu deity peeking out through some dense foliage.
As they got closer to inspect, police Insp. Sridhar S.R. noticed bright coloured saris strung along the length of a rope. As he pulled back the fabric, a woman and two young girls were spotted inside a cave.
Uttara Kannada District Police via AP.
Russian national Nina Kutina, 40, and her two daughters, ages four and six, had been living in the cave for about a week, officials said. Kutina had previously used the cave as a retreat to practice yoga and meditation, and told the inspectors they were happily making it a home now.
According to ABC News, she told investigating officers she was “interested in staying in the forest and worshipping God.”
In an interview with South Asian news agency ANI, Kutina explained her reasoning for living in the forest with her girls.
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“We have big experience to stay in nature, in jungle. We were not dying. I did not bring my daughters to die in jungle,” Kutina told ANI.
Kutina recounted making art and using clay with her daughters, and cooking “tasty food.”
“They did not feel bad. They were very happy,” she said.
Eventually, the trio were taken to a shelter for women run by a non-profit group, the New York Times reported. They have since been moved to a detention facility specifically for foreigners who are in India illegally. Police said they are taking steps to repatriate Kutina to Russia for overstaying her visa, but added that her children do not have Russian passports.
Police inspectors said records showed Kutina arrived in India in 2016 on a business visa that expired in April 2017. She left the country for Nepal in September 2018, but returned to India.
Kutina was “reluctant to provide proper details regarding her and her children’s passport and visa,” police Supt. M. Narayana said.
She did not reveal whether her children were born in India or Russia, but she told authorities she had a son who died in Goa, Narayana told CNN.
“She does not want to leave as she loves the nature, but we have to follow procedure,” Narayana said. He said the fact that she managed to be in India undetected since 2017 was a security concern.
“Going (into) caves is a dangerous thing, and with two children, and to live there for a week or more is astonishing.”
A police statement said Kutina sent a message to her friends after she was found.
“Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed,” she wrote in the message, according to the statement.
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.