Returning from the Wilderness: Russian Mother and Her Children Rescued from Indian Cave

Tue Sep 30 2025 17:50:26 GMT+0300 (Eastern European Summer Time)

Nina Kutina and her daughters have returned to Russia after being rescued from living in a cave in Karnataka, India. Their story brings attention to issues of child welfare and international custody disputes.

Nina Kutina, a 40-year-old Russian woman, and her two daughters, aged six and five, have returned to Russia after their extraordinary story captured global attention. Rescued in July from a cave in Karnataka, India, where they lived for an unknown period, Kutina faced a custody challenge when the children's biological father sought intervention. The Karnataka High Court facilitated their return after reviewing their situation, emphasizing the children's best interests and their mother's wishes to return to Russia.

A Russian woman who made global headlines after being found living in a cave in India with her two young daughters has flown back to her country, an official told the BBC.

Nina Kutina, 40, and her daughters - aged six and five - were rescued on 9 July by policemen on a routine patrol in a forest in the southern state of Karnataka.

The woman, who did not have valid documents to stay in India, had been sent to a foreigners' detention centre along with her daughters.

Last week, the Karnataka high court asked the federal government to issue documents to Ms Kutina and her daughters to return home.

They left for Russia on 28 September, an official at the Foreigners' Regional Registration Office (FRRO), who wanted to stay anonymous, told BBC Hindi. Ms Kutina's minor son from another relationship, who was later found living in Goa state, also went with them.

The high court had been hearing a petition filed by Dror Shlomo Goldstein, an Israeli businessman living in Goa, who said he was the father of the two minor girls. He had asked the court to stop the children from being sent back to Russia and appealed for their custody.

Mr Goldstein hasn't commented on the court order yet. He has the option to appeal against it, but it's not clear whether a judgment in his favour could compel the children to be sent back to India.

The police team that found the three had earlier said they were on a routine patrol near Ramteertha hills in the Gokarna forest, which borders the tourist paradise of Goa, when they spotted brightly coloured clothes hung near a cave. When they got closer - the entrance to the cave had been curtained off with brightly coloured saris - they saw a little blonde girl running out. When the shocked policemen followed her inside, they found Ms Kutina and the other child.

The three of them had meagre possessions - plastic mats, clothes, packets of instant noodles and some other grocery items - and the cave was leaking.

Ms Kutina had defended her lifestyle in video interviews to Indian news agency ANI, saying she and her children were happy living like that and that nature gives good health. The police, however, said that they could not take any chances as the area was prone to landslides during the monsoon season. Ms Kutina and her daughters were taken for a medical examination and then shifted to a detention centre.

In court, Mr Goldstein's lawyer argued that deportation would not be in the interests of the children, citing India being a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, the lawyer for the federal government contended that this case could not be described as 'deportation' because Ms Kutina wrote to the Russian embassy expressing her wish to return.