Nina Kutina, the Russian woman who was found in a remote cave near Gokarna in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, has told the police that she loves India, forests and meditation and is devastated about being sent back to her country.
Gokarna police Sub Inspector Sridhar S R and his team found Kutina, 40, and her daughters, six and four years old, from a cave in the treacherous Ramatirtha hills of Kumta taluk Friday. The “spiritually inclined” Russian woman and her daughters were to be transported to Bengaluru Sunday to begin proceedings for deportation to Russia after police found that her visa expired in 2017.
Sridhar told The Indian Express that Kutina first arrived in India in 2016 on a business visa, and was drawn initially to the tourist and restaurant sectors in Goa and Gokarna. “But when her visa expired on April 17, 2017, instead of leaving, she chose to stay. Even after getting an exit permit in 2018 and briefly travelling to Nepal, she returned to India, disappearing into the coastal forests of Karnataka,” he said.
“She loved meditating and performing pooja for the gods in the forests. Fearing detection if she checked into any hotel, she chose to stay in the forests,” said a police officer.
The police discovered that the trio had been residing there for the last two months, which later turned out to be the culmination of an eight-year journey in hiding. (Express Photo)
The police said both of her daughters were born in India while she was in hiding. They, however, said she has refused to discuss their father, and authorities are still investigating whether she received any medical care during childbirth.
Sridhar and his team found her during a routine patrol at the Ramatirtha hills. While checking for adventure enthusiasts who might have ventured dangerously into the landslide-prone forest, they noticed footsteps leading to a cave.
A plastic cover at the entrance and photographs of deities outside suggested that humans inhabited the area. Sridhar said they found some Russian books inside the cave. Upon entering, they found a child playing while Kutina and her other daughter slept.
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The police discovered that the trio had been residing there for the last two months, which later turned out to be the culmination of an eight-year journey in hiding.
“We convinced her to come out, stating that there were chances of landslides in the area,” Sridhar said, adding that when warned about snakes in the area, she replied that “the snakes are our friends and they don’t harm us unless we trouble them”.
“She claimed that during their visits to nearby waterfalls for bathing, snakes would roam around them without showing any aggression,” he said.
The police said both of her daughters were born in India while she was in hiding. They, however, said she has refused to discuss their father. (Express Photo)
“During the rainy season, they lived with minimal clothing. Kutina had stockpiled enough groceries in the cave for their survival, and despite having candles, they rarely used artificial light, instead living by natural light,” he said.
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It is learnt the woman would charge her phone during visits to town to buy groceries and use it rarely. She would often take her children to Gokarna and other places but always returned to the cave.
Sridhar said this has been an unprecedented experience in his 18-year service. “I have seen some youth and sadhus venturing inside the forest, but never a mother with young children. They all look healthy and sane,” he said.
The police noted that when they arranged for the trio to spend Saturday night at an ashram, the children were thrilled by electric lights and beds, luxuries they had never experienced before.
Sridhar said he received a WhatsApp message from Kutina in Russian Sunday morning, expressing her heartbreak at being separated from nature. “She wrote that she loved India, the forest, and meditation, but was devastated about being sent back to her country. She said that the police were the reason for separating her from nature,” he said.
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In the message, also sent by the woman to her relatives, she wrote: “Our cave life is over. Our cozy comfortable house was broken. And we were placed in a prison without sky, without grass, without a waterfall, with an icy hard floor on which we now sleep to ‘protect us from rain and snakes’.”
Sridhar said Kutina had taken care of her children during their stay. “In her mobile phone, there are a lot of photos where the children are seen happily posing. She had kept a schedule for kids which includes drawing, singing, chanting mantras, yoga and other exercises. Even on Sunday morning, she was teaching her kids yoga,” he said.
After they were found the woman and her daughters were accommodated at the Woman Reception Centre in Karwar under the Department of Women and Child Welfare.
The police said they found her discarded passport near the cave and contacted the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), the agency responsible for overseeing the stay of foreigners within the country.