Statue unveiled to Mowgli girl and the dog that saved her

The statue - called Girl with Dog - was unveiled at Yakutsk Airport to the little girl who last year cheated death by surviving in the taiga where bears and wolves roam. The story of Karina and her puppy Naida captivated the world after it was run by The Siberian Times.

General Director of the airport, Nikolay Mestnikov, erected the memorial on the forecourt of the airport to showcase' the love of life, resilience, and fortitude of this little Yakut girl and the devotion of her puppy'.

The bronze sculpture to the girl, who celebrated her sixth birthday this week, and her dog was made by Nikolay Chochchasov.

Karina survived with no human contact for 12 days and nights, becoming lost with her pet after following her father into the taiga, full of wolves and bears. Naida kept Karina warm at night but after nine days returned home to summon help.

Three days later rescuers found her footprint next to a paw print close to a river, where they had drunk water. So the emergency workers knew they were in the right area of  the Sakha Republic, or Yakutia, Russia's largest region and only slightly smaller than India. 

Karina's grandmother Emma revealed the child's first words to the dog after she returned from five weeks of hospital treatment after her ordeal were: 'Why did you leave me?' Despite this, seeing the dog back in the village helped save her life.  

Naida's appearance after nine days gave rescuers hope that Karina was still alive, even though the dog was not able to retrace her steps back to the child. She was eventually found hungry, exhausted and covered in mosquito bites lying in a grassy hole.

Karina's grandmother Emma said her granddaughter survived because 'from an early age she got used to the harsh conditions of life in the taiga and is not scared of the forest'. 'And Naida helped too,' she added.

Karina's ordeal began after she followed her father Rodion into the forest as he left for a trip. He was unaware that his daughter and her dog had tailed him.

It took the girl's mother Talina, 22, who had been in the fields gathering hay when her daughter went missing, several days to reach Rodion and discover that she was lost. A massive search began for the girl. 

Karina drank water from rivers and ate berries, but when she was found, she was badly undernourished. Her doctor at the City Children's Hospital, in Yakutsk, Fedora Gogoleva, said: 'The family live far away in a remote village, not in the city, and it makes its mark. She was raised close to nature.

'Certainly she went with grandmother and parents to the forest, to gather berries. Perhaps this is why she was not afraid of the forest. Karina herself is a very strong girl, has a strong-willed character. This probably helped her to survive.'

'The forest around Olom is full of bears,' said rescuer Albert Semyonov, who revealed his men needed armed guards in looking for Karina. 'Close to the gunners we felt somehow calmer. However, the thought of bears immediately switched to another concern: somewhere in the forest was this helpless child.'

Read more: 

One year on, Mowgli girl Karina 'totally recovered' from 12 days and nights in Siberian wilderness

Girl lost for 12 days in Siberian wilderness looks forward to Xmas with dog that saved her