Abandoned girl likely raised by monkeys
INDIAN police are reviewing reports of missing children to try to identify a girl who was found living in a forest with a group of monkeys.
The girl, believed to be 10 to 12 years old, was unable to speak, was wearing no clothes and was emaciated when she was discovered and taken to a hospital in Bahraich, a town in Uttar Pradesh state in northern India.
The child, dubbed the Mowgli girl after the character in Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book, behaved like an animal, running on her arms and legs and eating food off the floor with her mouth, said Dr DK Singh, chief medical superintendent of the hospital.
Dr Singh said her behaviour indicated she “has spent several years in the jungle in the care of monkeys”.
“We are not allowing visitors because the girl reacts violently if she sees someone. She growls like a monkey and tries to claw them.
“She has become familiar with a doctor and some nurses.
“She refuses to eat in a plate and spreads the food on the bed or the floor before she eats it,” Dr Singh said.
After treatment, she has begun walking normally and eating with her hands.
“She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles,” Dr Singh said.
In January, some woodcutters spotted the girl roaming with monkeys, police officer Dinesh Tripathi said.
“They said the girl was naked and was comfortable in the company of monkeys.
“When they tried to rescue the girl, they were chased away by the monkeys.”
The girl was rescued later by a police officer in the Katar- niya Ghat forest range.
“When he called the girl, the monkeys attacked him but he was able to rescue the girl.
“He sped away with her in his police car while the monkeys gave chase,” Tripathi said.
Police are trying to deter- mine how the girl got into the forest and who her parents are. She will be sent to a home for juveniles if she is not identified.
Local reports said nearby residents believed the girl may have been abandoned because she is female.