Indian police find woman living in cave with her daughters

Police in India’s southern Karnataka state said Wednesday they found a Russian woman and her two young daughters living in isolation in a remote forest cave.

NEW DELHI — Police in India’s southern Karnataka state said Wednesday they found a Russian woman and her two young daughters living in isolation in a remote forest cave.

The woman, identified as Nina Kutina, 40, and her daughters, aged six and four, were found by police during a routine patrol to Ramatirtha Hill, a popular tourist site on the coast of Karnataka, on July 9. Police officer Sridhar S.R. said the family had been living in the cave for more than a week.

Police said they were taking steps to repatriate Kutina to Russia for overstaying her visa. She and her children have been moved to a nearby detention facility for foreigners living illegally in India.

Police said in a statement that 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 worshiping God.”

Sridhar said 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 Sridhar.