Indian police find Russian woman and her 2 daughters living in an isolated 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 6 and 4, 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.

He said police found pictures of Hindu deities on the inside walls of the cave where Kutina had been living. In a photograph provided by the police, she is seen in front of makeshift curtains made of red saris that covered the entrance to the cave.

The Russian Embassy in New Delhi didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The police statement said 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.

The Associated Press contacted Kutina over the phone but she declined to comment.

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.