Who is Mowgli girl? The baffling clues that could help identify eight-year-old found in India after being raised by monkeys
IT'S the premise for one of the most famous children's books ever written - the story of wild animals taking in a lost child to raise as one of their own.
And to many of us, it sounds like pure fantasy. But the news that a real-life "man cub" - bearing striking similarities to The Jungle Book's Mowgli - has been discovered living with a troop of monkeys in India has raised dozens of questions.
So who is this little girl and how did she end up living in the wild?
Authorities believe she is aged around eight, but she cannot speak like a human and does not understand any local dialects - making it extremely hard to find out more about her.
She was discovered two months ago by police officers on routine patrol in Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh, north east India - very close to the Nepalese border.
She was unable to walk like a human, instead moving on all fours, when she was spotted with three monkeys.
It is not known how she ended up in the jungle or how long she had been living with the animals, but it is said she was fully clothed with small injuries across her body.
The cops who found her suspect she may have been abandoned by her family.
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When the officers, who are based around 30 miles away in the village of Motipur Range, approached her, she and the monkeys screeched.
After a struggle, sub-inspector Suresh Yadav eventually managed to rescue her and Inspector Ram Avtar Singh took her to hospital.
Inspector Singh said: "She was terrified of us, she could not speak or hear us properly.
"She was surrounded by three monkeys.
"She had wounds on her body specifically on her elbow and one on her leg.
"She was wearing clothes but not very dirty, it looks like she was abandoned by her family.
"She looked weak and was very hungry.
"We gave her some food to eat.
"She looked miserable. If we hadn't rescued her she could have been eaten by other animals."
The girl has not spoken or understood any local dialect since she was rescued two months ago and doctors treating her have said she often gets violent.
She has reportedly made slow improvements and she’s already been taught to walk on her two legs.
Video footage shows her holding a plastic cup of water and drinking from it.
Chief Medical Officer Dr Dinesh Singh, at the district hospital in Bahraich, said: "When she was admitted here she was scared of us and she was always cowling like animals, like monkeys.
"She had wounds on her body and blood was oozing.
"We took care of her, bathed her, fed her and cleaned her.
"She was suffering from malnutrition.
"She might have eaten what animals did.
"She gets angry sometimes and we have to calm her down but it’s been difficult to handle her.
"She now walks like a human and sometimes we have to chase her back into the hospital as she’s often tried to run away.
"Now she eats food by her own, but she cannot eat food off a plate, she will eat the food directly from the bed not from a plate. She has this habit."
Incredibly, this is not the first case of this type - and previous similar stories suggest there is a possibility that the girl can be re-integrated into human society.
Marina spent five years living with a family of capuchin monkeys before she was discovered by hunters.
She lived on berries, roots and bananas, slept in holes in trees and reportedly moved about on all fours like her monkey family.
She wasn’t given any special treatment by the animals, she was reportedly left to scavenge for her own food but eventually they adjusted to her and would pull lice out of her hair like she was one of them.
Despite her many years living feral, Marina managed to completely re-integrate into human society and now lives in Yorkshire with her husband and two daughters.
John Ssebunya ran away from his Ugandan home in 1988 after witnessing his father murder his mother.
He ran into the jungle where he stayed and was reportedly adopted by monkeys.
John was found and captured in 1991 at the age of six and placed in an orphanage.
He has since learned to speak and even joined the Pearl of Africa children’s choir.
Dr Dinesh confirmed the girl found in Bahraich is making progress each week and eventually she will be sent to the government’s child protection department who will decide her future.
If the girl was abandoned, it appears unlikely that her family will ever be tracked down.
The fact she cannot understand local dialect could mean she has come from further afield, or she may have been in the wild so long she has forgotten what she once knew.
However if the girl was kidnapped by traffickers, or ran away, the huge media attention around her story could help finally reunite her with her human family.
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