Karnataka: Russian woman found living in cave with 2 daughters

In India, a Russian woman and her two young daughters were found living in a cave deep in the forests of southern state Karnataka, years after her travel documents expired, according to local authorities. The woman, identified as Nina Kutina, 40, and her daughters, aged six and four, were found a routine inspection by the police Ramatirtha Hill - a landslide-prone tourist site living inside a cave in Gokarna on July 9, according to a release issued by the office of local police superintendent M Narayana. They had lived in the cave for years, police said, adding that the mother’s visa expired eight years ago.

Kutina defended her decision to live off the grid with her daughters in an interview with ANI news agency, describing a life of swimming in waterfalls, painting and doing pottery. “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., “They did not feel bad. They were very happy.” Police said records showed she arrived in Goa on a business visa that expired in April 2017 and left the country to Nepal in September 2018, before returning to India. Kutina was “reluctant to provide proper details regarding her and her children’s passport and visa,” 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 has two daughters, Preya (6) and Ama (4), and while she was initially unwilling to discuss their father, Nina later reportedly opened up with help from counsellors and revealed that the father was an Israeli national.Nina Kutina earlier defended her stay in the cave, saying she has lived in forests of about 20 countries over the years. Officials are taking steps to repatriate Kutina and her children, who do not have passports, to Russia, Narayana said. They have been moved to a nearby detention facility specifically for foreigners illegally in India.

(State Correspondnt)