Siberian Mowgli Just Wants to Learn English after 16 Years in Forest

A boy who is believed to have grown up deep in a Siberian forest has emerged from the wilds after spending 16 years with only an English dictionary for learning material.

But the young man, who is believed to be 20 years old, has said he does not want to move to a city.

Named Odzhan, he has been dubbed the "Siberian Mowgli" after the character in Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book. Even his walk is different to that of city dwellers, said experts who examined him.

He was raised in a tiny cabin by his parents after they rejected society when the Soviet model of communism imploded in 1991, Odzhan said.

"We are living well," he told the Siberian Times. "This is the reality we have that we live here, and it's quite a good reality.

"To move closer towards the city? For that we need to have a more cultural society, and of course to change how the cities smell and the pollution.

"I am happy here."

But Odzhan was forced to abandon his hermit lifestyle when his parents vanished in May and he ventured in to the nearby village of Belokurikha for help.

Despite being introduced to urban life, he insisted that there was only one thing he really wanted to do: to refine his English-language skills with a non-Russian speaker.

"I study English, I've got a dictionary with words in English with spelling and pronunciation rules for every word. Of course, I need to practice - if only I could have a chance to communicate with somebody who speaks no words on Russia - at least for a month.

"But there is a psychological difficulty with my subconsciousness not understanding why it needs to learn English. I can easily say 'do you speak English?' but for proper fluent speech of course I need the practice."

Roman Fomin, an official who has examined Odzhan, said: "The way he walks is different from a 'normal' man's way of walking. You can see straight away that he spends hours walking long distances. He told me that he has never been to hospital and has no idea what the word 'vaccination' means.

"I took it that he never had any vaccinations in his life. He looks as though he is only 15 or 16 years old."

In 2012, a so-called feral boy was exposed as a fraud after emerging from a forest where he claimed to have lived for years. He was found to be a missing Dutch teenager who had vanished 12 months earlier.