A Russian woman has been found living off-grid in a cave with her two young daughters in India’s southern Karnataka state.
Nina Kutina, 40, made a home deep in the woods with her daughters aged five and six, police said. They had no visas and were undocumented in the country.
While patrolling the trails of the Ramteertha Hills on July 9, police officers saw a cloth covering a cave entrance and a little girl running barefoot outside.
Officer Sridhar SR confirmed the family had been living in the cave, with no electricity or modern amenities, for over a week.
“It is nothing but her love for adventure that brought her here,” Sridhar SR said.
#GokarnaPolice of #uttarakannada found a #Russianwoman #Nina_Kutina and her daughters aged #6and4years living in a #cave in a forest, Her #Visa had expired way back in 2017 and was #overstaying. She has been referred to #FRROfor deportation.#pramod #gokarna pic.twitter.com/XsF2U8CxqB
— Pramod (@pramodankolaVK) July 12, 2025
Kutina reportedly told police that she worked as a Russian language tutor in Goa and spent time in the cave meditating, feeding her children, painting, singing and reading.
Authorities are now working to send Kutina back to Russia, having overstayed her visa.
She and her daughters are currently being held in a detention facility for foreign nationals living in India illegally. They await deportation.
Kutina has defended her decision to live in the cave, saying she and her daughters were happy and healthy in the forest.
“We were not dying, and I did not bring my children, my daughters, to die in jungle.
“They did not feel bad, they were very happy, they swam in waterfall, they lived, had very good place for sleeping, a lot of lessons with art making, we made from clay, we painted, we ate good, I was cooking with gas, very good and tasty food,” she told the ANI news agency.
The father of Kutina’s two girls is reportedly an Israeli businessman, Dror Goldstein, residing in India.
He told NDTV that Kutina had left Goa with the children without informing him, prompting him to file a missing persons complaint.
Goldstein is now pushing for joint custody of the children and has opposed the government’s plan to deport them back to Russia.
Since the family were discovered by chance, officers have ramped up patrols in the Gokarna forest bordering tourist hotspot Goa.
