Mogli: Jungle Boy, which was released in 2018, is one of Disney’s most popular productions. As the name suggests, this movie, which tells the life of a boy living in the forest, is far from being a product of imagination.
Dina Sanichar is a real-life child who lived with wolves in India. Dina, who was found by hunters while walking on all fours with the wolves, has not been able to adapt to normal life throughout her life, and has never stopped walking naked even though she got used to walking on two legs over time. If you wish, let’s take a closer look at the story of this boy who grew up with the animals in the forest.
Dina is found by a group of hunters hunting wolves.
The story of Dina’s emergence takes place in 1876. The first names to notice the little boy were a group of hunters who went to the mountain to hunt wolves in Bulendshahr, India. After preparing the traps for the wolves, these hunters saw an animal in the herd that did not look like a wolf at all, and when they got closer, they realized that it was not an animal, but a child, at most 6 years old, walking on all fours like wolves.
After what the hunters had seen, the goal was of course not to continue hunting the wolves, but to save the boy. Seeing that the little boy entered a cave with the wolves, the men managed to get the wolves out by lighting fires outside the cave. After killing the wolves, the men caught the boy and took him directly to an orphanage called Sikandra. Since the child did not have a name, the day they took him to the orphanage was Saturday, they named him Dina Sanichar, which means Saturday in Hindi.
6-year-old boy had a hard time adjusting to society
Although the hunters thought that they had saved Dina’s life, it was not easy for Dinar to start living in the orphanage among people. Considering that the boy they took from the cave was abandoned by his family and grew up with wolves from a very young age, you can guess that the “real wild” society was for Dinar.
The people in the orphanage tried to make Dinar walk on two legs first. Although it was extremely difficult for Dinar to walk on two legs, as a result of long studies, the little boy was able to walk like normal people.
Although Dinar walked on two legs, this time he did not like to walk around in clothes like the other children in the orphanage. That’s why the authorities at the orphanage gave Dina a privilege and allowed the little boy to walk around naked for a while, just like he did in the cave.
Dina’s behavior and body development resembled those of wolves more than that of a human
Whether she’s walking around naked or howling like wolves for one hour of the night, Dina has never been able to act like a normal child. When her lack of communication with other children was added to all these, the authorities in the orphanage nicknamed Dina “Wolf Child” besides her own name.
The reason behind Dina’s behavior resembling wolves is not just because she walks on four legs or walks around naked. According to the orphanage inspector Erhardt Lewis, Dina preferred to eat only raw meat, and before she ate the meat, she held it to her nose and smelled it for a long time, just like wolves.
Of course, her behavior wasn’t the only thing keeping Dina away from people. Unlike other children, the little boy did not show any development as he grew up, and his height remained extremely similar to the time he was found. Dina’s head also took a different shape compared to the other children, and over time she had sharp front teeth, similar to those of wolves.
The little boy has learned neither to speak nor to communicate in sign language.
As Dina spent time in the orphanage, she began to become like one of them. However, he never learned to speak, and despite the efforts of the teachers at the orphanage, he could not even communicate with sign language. There were only one or two people in the orphanage with whom Dina could understand and express herself with simple gestures. Apart from these people, Dina could only express herself by howling and shouting like wolves.
The little boy stayed alone in the orphanage for a long time, and could not communicate with other children in any way because he could not learn to speak. The only person Dina acquired at the orphanage was a child who grew up among animals like herself. Along with the other unnamed child, Dina howled together, jumping around as if she had animal instincts, scaring the other children.
Dina’s cause of death is extremely “modern”
Dina’s only modern behavior in the orphanage was to smoke like other adults. In fact, Dina smoked so much that the orphanage officials said that the tuberculosis that caused Dina’s death had gotten so bad because of smoking. Ultimately, Dina Sanichar died in 1895 at the age of 29. He left behind a life story that would first inspire the famous poet Rudyard Kipling, and then the big screen.
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