An 8-year-old girl was found living with monkeys in a remote nature reserve in Bahraich, northern India. The girl has now been dubbed Mowgli 2.0 because of the similarity of her story with the story of the boy in The Jungle Book who was brought up by wolves.
The girl was discovered by a group of woodcutters working in the area who then alerted government officials and she was rescued from the region near the Nepal border. The girl did not seem happy about being uprooted from the only home she knows, she then screeched like a monkey, which it was soon discovered is the only way she knows how to communicate.
It was also discovered that the girl could not walk like a human and instead moved on all fours, the way animals do and she runs away at the sight of humans. Authorities say she seemed comfortable among the apes at Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary, close to the border with Nepal.
It has not been discovered who she is, where she came from and how long she has been in the wild but investigations are ongoing already. Sub-inspector Suresh Yadav was the one who rescued the girl while he was on patrol two months ago.
When the girl was found, she was "naked and was very comfortable in the company of monkeys. When the woodcutters tried to rescue the girl, they were chased away by the monkeys," Police officer Dinesh Tripathi said.
Later, another police officer came to try to rescue her but the monkeys fought for her.
"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.Inspector Ram Avtar Singh, from Motipur station, in Bahraich, said:
"She was terrified of us, she could not speak or hear us properly. She was surrounded by three monkeys. She had wounds on her body specifically on her elbow and one on her leg. She was wearing clothes but not very dirty, it looks like she was abandoned by her family. She looked weak and was very hungry. We gave her some food to eat. She looked miserable. If we hadn't rescued her she could have been eaten by other animals."
Doctors at the government-run hospital she was taken to say she is still prone to bouts of anger and violence while she does not appear to understand any language. She is also still frightened of humans and though she has been taught to walk upright, she still prefers to walk on all fours. However, there has been an improvement from the time when she first came in.At the initial stage, she behaved like an animal, even to the extent of eating her food off the floor. Now she is able to eat with her hands.
Video footage of the girl in the hospital showed her pour her food from the plate in which she was served onto the mattress from where she ate, but that's an improvement from eating from the floor.
"She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles," said D.K. Singh, chief medical superintendent of the hospital.
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