Contrary to initial claims girl’s rapid improvement indicates she was recently abandoned by her carers 
 
 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. 
 
 According to more extraordinary accounts police had been forced to fight off monkeys to rescue the girl. 
 
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 But far from being raised by animals in the Katarniya Ghat forest range, the girl, who doctors believe has mental and physical disabilities, was likely to have been recently abandoned in the wilderness by her carers, the district chief forestry officer said. 
 
 JP Singh said the girl was actually found on a roadside near the forest, not deep in the wilderness. And though there were monkeys in her vicinity, his rangers “never found this girl living with monkeys”, he said. 
 
 “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. 
 
 “It is clear from first time view, if you see the girl, that she is only eight or nine years old, but her facial expressions show that she is disabled, not only mentally but also physically,” he said. 
 
 The forest is closely monitored by rangers and CCTV, and it was unlikely she could have survived in the wilderness for long without being spotted, he added. 
 
 The chief medical officer of the hospital in Bahraich, where the girl has been receiving treatment since she was found in January, said it was difficult to “say exactly when she was abandoned”. 
 
 “In India, people do not prefer a female child and she is mentally not sound,” DK Singh said. “So all the more [evidence] she was left there.” 
 
 Ankur Lal, the chief medical officer for Bahraich district, said the nature of the child’s disability was “still under investigation”, but it was unlikely she had been raised in the forest. 
 
 “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. 
 
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 But the rapid improvement she had made since being hospitalised 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. 
 
 “The truth of the matter is her family didn’t want to look after her,” said Ranjana Kumari a leading activist in the movement to promote the welfare of young girls in a society where female foeticide persists, and has severely distorted birth rates, especially in rural areas. 
 
 “Some families value girls less than boys,” she said. “They would rather get rid of the girl than spend money on her. It is a lot more responsibility because of the social environment we live in.” 
 
 She said the Indian state offered little help for poor families with disabled children – “and when it is a girl, it becomes double the issue”. 
 
 
 
 The girl will be moved on Saturday to a children’s home in Lucknow to continue her recovery. ||||| A child dubbed “Mowgli Girl” after she was discovered in a forest in Northern India exhibiting signs of a feral upbringing was not raised by monkeys, Indian officials have said. 
 
 It had been reported the girl had been discovered by forest rangers, who said she had been living with monkeys in a nature reserve in Uttar Pradesh. 
 
 The girl was unable to speak or walk, and could only move around crawling on all fours. 
 
 One forest ranger told The Associated Press that “the girl was naked and was very comfortable in the company of monkeys”. 
 
 “When they tried to rescue the girl, they were chased away by the monkeys,” he added. 
 
 However, forestry officers have since said it would have been impossible for the girl to go undiscovered for so many years in a forest which is regularly patrolled. 
 
 “It’s not possible that a girl could spend years in the forest, and no member of staff or hundreds of cameras installed for security and animal census notices her”, regional officer Gyan Praksh Singh said in a statement. 
 
 Indian authorities now believe the girl, who appears to have severe mental and physical disabilities, may have been abandoned by her carers. 
 
 Dr DK Singh, the chief medical officer of the hospital where she has been receiving treatment told The Guardian: “In India, people do not prefer a female child and she is mentally not sound, so all the more [evidence] she was left there.” 
 
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 Since being admitted to hospital, the girl has learned to walk standing upright and has been eating solid food. 
 
 The rapid improvement in her condition appears to indicate she was raised by humans rather than animals, doctors say. 
 
 “She is still not able to speak, but understands whatever you tell her and even smiles,” Dr Singh said. 
 
 Indian police are searching for the child’s family members, but no one has so far come forward. ||||| It Turns Out That 'Mowgli Girl' Wasn't Raised By Monkeys, She Was Abandoned By Parents For Being Mentally Ill 
 
 It Turns Out That 'Mowgli Girl' Wasn't Raised By Monkeys, She Was Abandoned By Parents For Being Mentally Ill 
 
 The curious case of an 8-year-old girl who was said to be rescued by Forest officials from Katarniyaghat wildlife sanctuary in January has taken a dramatic new twist. Officials now has rejected earlier reports that the girl was rescued from a troop of monkeys. 
 
 ANI 
 
 They said, the girl who has been named Vana Durga had mental issues and was possibly abandoned by her parents for the same reason. 
 
 Forest officials said it is impossible that the girl was raised by monkeys for years, in a sanctuary which is visited by thousands of people. 
 
 “It’s not possible that a girl spends years in the forest and no staff or hundreds of cameras installed for security and animal census notice her. She might have been dropped here sometime before being spotted by the patrol team.” divisional forest officer Gyan Praksh Singh said. 
 
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 ANI 
 
 The girl was dubbed 'Mowgli Girl' after it was reported that she was raised by monkeys and was scared of humans and couldn't communicate in human language. 
 
 Added to this was reports that while she was admitted in a Bahraich hospital, she was walking on four legs and was eating like animals. 
 
 ANI 
 
 In a statement to PTI, Chief Medical Superintendent DR D K Singh said that the girl has communication issues and screams whenever someone goes near her, which is why it is becoming difficult to treat her. 
 
 Assistant Superintendent of Police Dinesh Tripathi was quoted by PTI saying that there was no information as to who the girl was and her behaviour indicated that she had been living with monkeys.
– A young girl raised by monkeys in the forests of India. Too strange to be true? Apparently yes. Earlier this week, stories of the "Mowgli Girl" spread across the world. Rangers claimed they found the girl—about 8 years old, naked, crawling on all fours, and screeching—living with monkeys deep in a forest in January. Authorities and doctors now say the girl is mentally and physically disabled and had likely been abandoned in the forest by her family at most a few days before she was found, the Guardian reports. The girl, who was actually found on the side of a road in the forest, has been improving quickly in the hospital—a sign she had been living with humans until recently. The Independent reports she is now walking and standing upright and eating solid food. While she's still unable to speak, doctors say she understands what they're saying to her. Meanwhile, authorities say it's impossible she could have been in the forest for long without being spotted. Staff regularly patrols the area, and there are hundreds of cameras set up to track wildlife—not to mention the thousands of visitors roaming the area every year, according to the India Times. Police are looking for the girl's family. She is being transferred to a children's home Saturday.