‘We were not dying’: Russian woman rescued from Gokarna cave defends natural lifestyle with children

BENGALURU: Russian national Nina Kutina and her two children were rescued by Gokarna Police and processed by the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO) in Bengaluru before being sent back to a rescue centre in Tumakuru.

Kutina, who had been living with her daughters in a cave near Gokarna, defended her lifestyle and rejected the claims made about her situation.

“You give already a lot of lying information. We have big experience to stay in natural, in jungle, and 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 said.

#WATCH | Bengaluru | Russian national Nina Kutina, who was found living with her two daughters in a remote cave near Gokarna in Karnataka, says, “We have a lot of experience staying in nature and we were not dying. I did not bring my children to die in the jungle…We used to… pic.twitter.com/iY0Bi8I6xb

— ANI (@ANI) July 14, 2025

Dismissing suggestions of neglect or danger, she added, “They have everything best, they were happy, and dressed, and sleeping good, and art lessons, and lessons about how to write and read, and they were not dying from hunger, never, everything not true. I have a lot of websites like social net, my profile has a lot of video about our life experience, and a lot of years, different country, like near 20 countries I live, different forest, because we love natural”.

Kutina stated that they had been taken to the hospital and her children were in perfect health. “Today, they brought us to hospital for doctors, it was the first time my daughters were in hospital, they are full of health, not one pain they have, and not one time in their life they were sick”.

She also defended the cave they were living in, calling it safe and near a village. “Because we love living natural, it’s just one reason, and this cave was not in like in big big forest, far far from all, and we could probably buy food or anything, it’s very close to village, and it’s very big and beautiful cave, and not small, and it’s like it has window to look to ocean”.

“It’s not a dangerous place, every tourist three minutes can come at place, and snakes for all time we live, yes we saw a few snakes, but same time in grove, Gokarna grove, people put a photo about snakes come to home, to kitchen, to toilet, to everywhere, it’s same same.”

The woman was living with her two young daughters in the cave.

Regarding visa issues, Kutina admitted their documents had expired, but disputed reports that they had overstayed since 2017. “It is lying, because they found my old passport, and they decide what it’s like, they did not check if it’s real true. We don’t have our visa, valid visa, our visa finished, but it was short time ago. After 2017, we already were in four countries, leave and then come back to India”.

She also explained her continued stay in India after her son passed away. “After I had my son, big son, he died, died, and because it happened, and it brought what my new visa, I stayed little more, but not so much, how they tell”. Kutina said she was born in Russia, but hadn’t lived there for 15 years. “After that, I was travelling a lot of countries, Costa Rica, Malaysia, Bali, Thailand, Nepal, Ukraine”.

Rejecting the narrative that spirituality alone motivated her, she clarified, “It is not about spiritually how they write, it’s not about it, we just like natural because it gives us health… it’s very big health, it’s not like you live in home”.

She maintained that her daughters were comfortable and happy. “Very comfortable. I have Telegram canal where for all time what we stay in cave, we have photo, video, what we do inside, how we cook tasty food, what we eat, how we make lessons, art, painting and clay… all what we do, you can look at”. (ANI)