Woman Living in Cave with 2 Daughters Wanted to 'Stay in Nature.' After Being Found by Police, She's Being Deported
A 40-year-old Russian woman and her two young daughters were found living in a cave in southwestern India on July 9
A lover of nature, the longtime traveler said she was staying in the forest to worship God and meditate
The woman, whose visa expired in 2017, and her children will be deported to Russia, officials saidA Russian woman was found living in a cave with her two young daughters in the forest-dense hills of southwestern India, authorities said.
Police inspector Sridhar S.R. and officers were patrolling the Ramateertha hills in Gokarna, a town in Karnataka State, on the evening of Wednesday, July 9, when they came across 40-year-old Nina Kutina and her two daughters, ages 4 and 6, the office of local police superintendent M Narayana said in a statement shared on X.
The Russian national told police that she was 'interested in staying in the forest and worshiping God,' according to the translated statement, 'and had come here with her children from Goa [a state in western India] and stayed in the cave on the hill and worshiped God and meditated.'
When their patrol began, local officials were monitoring for tourists in the landslide-prone area, which is also dangerous because of the poisonous snakes that live there.
After police made Kutina aware of the peril of remaining there, she and her daughters were taken to a retreat center in a neighboring village by female police officers, at her request, officials said.
But when the woman didn't provide official documentation for her family, she was questioned and said her passport could still be in the cave. When officials returned to her forest dwelling, they found Kutina's passport and visa, which had expired in 2017.
Local officials and the Russian Embassy in New Delhi did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's requests for comment.
Eventually, Kutina and her children were brought to a women's shelter, where she emailed her relatives in Russian, The New York Times reported.
'Our peaceful life in the cave has ended — our cave home destroyed,' she wrote, according to a translation given to the outlet by police. 'From years living under the open sky in harmony with nature, we know: no snake or animal ever harmed us.'
After days of investigative work, police learned more about Kutina's journey. In 2016, Kutina traveled to Goa on a six-month business visa, but stayed longer than allowed. After Indian officials permitted her to leave in April 2018, the woman traveled to Nepal before returning to India in 2020, the Times reported.
Kutina's oldest son died at the age of 21 after a bike accident in 2024, and the location of her 11-year-old son is unknown, authorities told the paper. Kutina's 6-year-old daughter was born in Ukraine, while her youngest was born in India, according to the Times.
Kutina, who previously used the cave as a retreat, had lived there with her daughters for a week before they were discovered, according to the Times. In an interview with South Asian news agency ANI, Kutina explained her reasoning for living in the forest with her girls.
'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, recounting making art and using clay with her daughters, and cooking 'tasty food." She added, "They did not feel bad. They were very happy.'
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Though Kutina told police she wanted to stay in India, the woman and her daughters will be sent to Russia, according to the police statement. 'She does not want to leave as she loves the nature, but we have to follow procedure,' Narayana told CNN.
He added, 'Going [into] caves is a dangerous thing, and with two children, and to live there for a week or more is astonishing.'
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