The Real Life Jungle Book Kid

"The Jungle Book" came to life. We’ve all read it, watched the movie. Found it touching, loving and caring. In this, real life case, the story about a five year old girl from the Siberian city of Chita, touched the hearts for a different reason.

Natasha Mikhailova, a Mowgli girl, as dubbed by media, was kept locked in a small room surrounded with dogs and cats. Spending a several years with just animals, she now behaves like one of them - she doesn’t speak, drinks with her tongue, walks on all fours.

Only a door away was her father and grandparents; who neglected the child.

”They never let her out, we didn't know she existed”, said one neighbor.

“They have three really vicious and angry ones which they took for walks - but we never saw this child.”

“These neighbours are unsociable, they only come out at night or early in the morning to avoid meeting with other locals and they never open the door”, says Yekaterina, a neighbor.

The girl is now put under observation and doctors say they’re satisfied with her appetite but she shows animal behavior.

“When I went out of the room, she jumped at the door and started barking, not just mewing or something, but barking”, said Nina Yemelchugova, chief of the social rehabilitation centre.

The girl was freed from the gruesome room a few days ago by the police:

“We had to fight to get this girl away”.

The child’s mother was immediately arrested while the father was nowhere to be found. They both could face around three years in prison.