Indian girl found in jungle was not living with monkeys, officials say

[Equinox Moon]

Source: The Guardian - US

April 8, 2017
The discovery of a girl reportedly living with monkeys in the forests of northern India has been compared to a modern-day Jungle Book but officials and doctors close to the child say the true story is darker.

This week news reports from the state of Uttar Pradesh said the girl, aged around eight, had been found by forest rangers in January living with monkeys. She was reportedly naked, crawled on all fours and screeched at passersby.

“I think the family members of this girl had been aware that she is not able to speak, and they may have abandoned her near the forest road,” he said. “If she was living with monkeys it would have been for a few days only, not for a long time.

“When she was found, she was behaving violently. She had no toilet habits, no communication. So it was taken that she had been living in the jungle for long,” he said.

But the rapid improvement she had made since being hospitalized now led doctors to believe she had in fact been raised by people. “Initially she was crawling but now she is walking normally – so she hasn’t been in the jungle since birth,” Lal said.



Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/apr/08/indian-girl-found-in-jungle-was-not-living-with-monkeys-officials-say

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The reporting goes on to say that she appears to have physical and psycho-emotional-behavioral disabilities. In India it is difficult for poor families to care for disabled children and girls are not valued the same as boys.

She was abandoned by the road/forest is what happened.

[retrowire]

1. oh so thats what happened.

fucking poverty.

[Equinox Moon]

2. Yes, and they have a cast system.

[retrowire]

7. Well I can say that public school did at least teach me that

And my friends in India taught me even moreso how much the culture is structured around it.

[yardwork]

3. That's what I guessed.

[gordianot]

4. Dare say media hype fake news.

People are gullible a real industry at the check out counter in the grocery store and right wing politicians.

[Archae]

5. I figured this...

All those stories of "animal kids" like that are found to be bogus, a real human would not be able to survive.

"Tarzan" and "A Jungle Book" are just stories. Fiction.

These are kids with mental problems like severe autism, usually from poor families.

[LeftishBrit]

6. I thought this would turn out to be the case

A child would not be able to survive being brought up by animals from infancy, because, apart from all other considerations, humans are dependent for far longer than other animals. A human infant would need to be suckled far longer than a mother monkey or wolf is programmed to suckle. 'Wild children' have generally, where information was available, turned out to be abandoned children, who, at most, found temporary refuge with animals.

[janterry]

8. They still need to get her picture out of the news

It's disrespectful. We wouldn't do that in this country (I hope! Though we've sure done some terrible things in the past) because we understand that the disabled have rights. If the person is too young or unable to give informed consent, then a guardian is ordered by the courts.

This story could have been told, but she should not have been on television.

[Honeycombe8]

9. Poor girl. I think India's institutions are not very good...

but at least she'll be given some medical care, food, and protection from the elements.

India is an odd country. A democracy, but it leaves huge parts of its population in the poverty experienced by third world countries, without sewerage or running water or education.

[madokie]

10. How terrible

that a family could do this to one of their own

[milestogo]

12. Dumped like an unwanted dog.

[Berlin Expat]

13. It reminds me of the story of

Genie, a girl from Arcadia, California.

Genie (born April 18, 1957) is the pseudonym for a feral child who was a victim of severe abuse, neglect, and social isolation. Her circumstances are prominently recorded in the annals of linguistics and abnormal child psychology. When she was a baby, her father concluded that she was severely mentally retarded, a view which intensified as she got older, causing him to dislike her and withhold care and attention. At approximately the time she reached the age of 20 months he decided to keep her as socially isolated as possible as a result of this belief, so from that time until she reached the age of 13 years and 7 months, he kept her locked alone in a room.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genie_(feral_child)

A real-life horror story. I grew up hearing about it - this was in the 1970s in Los Angeles, and it had become something of a local legend. I thought it was an urban legend until I found out from my father that it was, in fact, all too true, minus some of the embellishments that grew alongside the story I was told by childhood friends.

[YOHABLO]

14. est. population of India 1,276,267,000 people that's over 1 billion

India has a long way to go before it can even begin taking care of it's people. It's still archaic in many ways.