The man told authorities -- in delayed but clear speech -- that he was born in 1993 and had lived in the forest since 1997 when his parents decided to leave society. He explained that they left him alone in the hut in May and haven't returned since.
"He has got no education, doesn’t have any social skills and has no conception of the world outside of the woods," said Roman Fomin, a prosecutor in the town of Belokuriha Russia's RT TV network reported.
Media outlets have dubbed the man "forest boy" or "Siberian Mowgli" after the character in Rudyard Kipling's "The Jungle Book."
Officers explained that the man's parents will unlikely face abandonment charges because he was not a child when they left him.
“They only have criminal responsibility if some harm has been done to their child. The most obvious charge could be neglect or abuse, but we have no evidence of this,” the prosecutor said.
They added that locals claim to have seen the couple leaving for the island of Sakhalin, off Russia’s Pacific Coast.
As of now, the "Siberian Mowgli" continues to live in the forest where he is currently gathering firewood to prepare for winter.
