Silke Jasso
Police in northern India are reviewing reports of missing children after rescuing a young girl who was found living in a forest with several monkeys. The girl, believed to be 8 to 10 years old, behaved like an animal when she was discovered in January, walking on all fours and eating food off of the ground with her mouth.
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She has since been in the care of doctors at a hospital in Bahraich, where she has responded positively to treatment. She is now walking on two feet and eating with her hands. While she is still not speaking, doctors say she responds to people around her by smiling and has even held hands with some of her doctors and nurses. Initial assessments led doctors to believe that she had early human contact before living with the monkeys, but they have not been able to determine an exact timeline.
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“The fact that she is responding to humans shows that she has some memory of living with them,” Dr. Arun Lal, the district chief medical officer, said before dismissing any similarity between the girl and Mowgli from “The Jungle Book,” calling the theory “fictional nonsense.”
Doctors have named her Durga, after the Hindu warrior goddess of destruction. She was rescued after woodcutters spotted her with the monkeys, who chased them away when they attempted to rescue her. Police later arrived and successfully rescued her, but experienced a similar reaction by the monkeys.
“When [an officer]Â called the girl, the monkeys attacked him, but he was able to rescue the girl,” officer Dinesh Tripathi said. “He sped away with her in his police car while the monkeys gave chase.”
Police are now trying to determine how she got into the forest and who her parents are. After she leaves the hospital, she will be sent to a home for juveniles until she is officially identified.
