Mystery surrounds American woman found starving and chained to tree in India

Mystery surrounds an American woman found chained to a “screaming” tree in a forest in the western Indian state of Maharashtra.

Lalita Kayi, 50, was discovered a week ago in the dense forests of Sindhudurg district after her cries for help were heard by shepherds. They alerted the police who cut the chain and rescued her.

Ms Kayi, who appeared completely emaciated, was taken to hospital. Her physical health has since improved and on Friday she was transferred to a psychiatric facility for further treatment, doctors treating her told the BBC.

In a written statement to police, she claimed that her husband “chained her up and left her to die in the forest without food or water.”

Police say they are looking for her husband in the southern state of Tamil Nadu based on information she gave them.

But seven days after Ms Kayi’s rescue, it remains unclear who she is, how she ended up in the forest, who tied her to the tree and why.

Pandurang Gawkar, a shepherd who found her last Saturday, told BBC Marathi that he had taken his cattle to graze in the forest when he heard “a woman screaming loudly”.

“The noise came from the forest, on the mountainside. When I arrived, I saw that one of her legs was tied to a tree. She was screaming like an animal. I called other villagers and the local police.”

Police said they found on her a copy of her passport, which showed she was a US citizen, and her Aadhaar card – a unique identity document for Indians – with her home address in Tamil Nadu.

They said she also had a mobile phone, a tablet and 31,000 rupees ($370; £290) in her possession, allowing them to rule out robbery as a motive.

Locals say the woman was lucky that the shepherd chose a place near her home to graze his flock that day. The forest in which she was discovered is vast and she could have gone days without anyone hearing her cries for help.

Police first took her to a local hospital before transferring her to a hospital in the neighbouring state of Goa.

Dr Shivanand Bandekar, dean of Goa Medical College, told The Indian Express newspaper that she had leg injuries and appeared to be suffering from a mental health problem.

“We don’t know how long it has been since she last ate, but her vital signs are stable,” Dr Bandekar said.

By Friday, the woman’s physical health had improved enough to be transferred to a mental hospital in Ratnagiri district of Maharashtra state.

“Currently his health is stable,” hospital director Dr Sanghamitra Phule told BBC Marathi.

“She takes medication, eats and interacts with people. If she wants something, she can say it. She only knows English.”

According to police, Ms Kayi was a ballet dancer and yoga practitioner in America – some reports say specifically in Massachusetts – and moved to India about 10 years ago to study yoga and meditation in Tamil Nadu.

That’s where she met her husband – in some media reports, the police called him Satish. Police believe that at some point she had an argument with her husband.

According to some reports, she stayed at a hotel in Goa for two days and then travelled to Mumbai, India’s financial capital.

But it is not clear exactly when or how she ended up in the forest where she was discovered last week.

Ms Kayi, who initially could not speak, communicated with police and doctors by writing notes on a notepad. In them, she blamed her husband for tying her to the tree and said she had been without food or water for 40 days.

She also claimed she was given an “extreme psychosis injection” that locked her jaw and prevented her from drinking water, and that she had to be fed intravenously.

“I am a victim and I survived. But he ran away from here,” she said.

Police say they have not been able to verify these claims and believe it is unlikely that anyone could survive without food or water for such a long time.

They have registered an attempt to murder on her husband and have sent teams to Tamil Nadu, Goa and Maharashtra to investigate the case further. Her husband is yet to be traced by the police and has not made any statement to the media.

Police say they are also looking for clues in the cellphone and tablet they found on the woman.

The US Embassy in Delhi – which, according to media reports, is “putting pressure on the police to expedite the investigation” – declined to comment on the matter.

A spokesperson told the BBC it could not respond to requests for information “due to US privacy law”, which governs the release of private information.

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