A Russian mother and her two young daughters have been found living in a remote forest cave in India.
Cops discovered Nina Kutina, 40, and her children, aged six and four, during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a tourist site on the coast of Karnataka, on July 9.
Police officer Sridhar SR said the family had been living in the cave for more than a week.
In a photograph Ms Kutina is seen in front of makeshift curtains made of red saris that covered the entrance to the cave.
Police said they were taking steps to repatriate her to Russia for overstaying her visa.
She and her children have been moved to a nearby detention facility for foreigners living illegally in India.
Ms Kutina defended her lifestyle in a video interview with ANI news agency, insisting the cave was ‘not a dangerous place to stay’.
‘We have a lot of experience staying in nature and we were not dying. I did not bring my children to die in the jungle.
A Russian mother and her two young daughters have been found living in a remote forest cave in India
Cops discovered Nina Kutina, 40, and her children, aged six and four, during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a tourist site on the coast of Karnataka, on July 9
Ms Kutina defended her lifestyle in a video interview with ANI news agency, insisting the cave was ‘not a dangerous place to stay’
‘We used to swim in the waterfall. My kids were not dying from hunger,’ she says.
Ms Kutina added: ‘I have lived in the forests of nearly 20 countries as we love nature. The cave was very close to the village. The cave was not a dangerous place to stay.’
A spokesperson said that Ms Kutina spent her time in the cave meditating by candlelight, and that she told investigating officers she was ‘interested in staying in the forest and worshipping God’.
Mr Sridhar said Ms Kutina told police that she had worked as a tutor of Russian language in Goa, a coastal tourist state in southern India.
‘It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here,’ said Mr Sridhar.
He said police found pictures of Hindu deities on the inside walls of the cave where Ms Kutina had been living.
According to police, Ms 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.
On Tuesday, she told news agency Press Trust of India that she spent her days in the cave by painting, singing, reading books, and living peacefully with her children.