This has to be one of the most incredible stories in recent times.
Four children have been found alive after surviving a plane crash and spending weeks fending for themselves in Colombia’s Amazon jungle.
Colombia’s president said the rescue of the siblings, aged 13, nine, four and one, was “a joy for the whole country”.
The children’s mother and two pilots were killed when their light aircraft crashed in the jungle on 1 May.
The missing children became the focus of a huge rescue operation involving dozens of soldiers and local people.
…The children belong to the Huitoto indigenous group.
…A massive search began and in May, rescuers recovered items left behind by the children, including a child’s drinking bottle, a pair of scissors, a hair tie and a makeshift shelter.
Small footprints were also discovered, which led search teams to believe the children were still alive in the rainforest, which is home to jaguars, snakes and other predators.
Members of the children’s community hoped that their knowledge of fruits and jungle survival skills would give them a better chance of remaining alive.
That hope turned out to be justified.
The children’s grandmother, Fatima Valencia, said after their rescue: “I am very grateful, and to mother earth as well, that they were set free.”
…She said the eldest of the four siblings was used to looking after the other three when their mother was at work, and that this helped them survive in the jungle.
“She gave them flour and cassava bread, any fruit in the bush, they know what they must consume,” Ms Valencia said in footage obtained by EVN.
For the 13-year old to be able to keep the others, especially the one-year old, alive for more than a month in a dangerous jungle shows remarkable presence of mind. I do not think I would have lasted for more than a few days in that situation, even if I did not have to care for anyone else.
I just hope that they are not too traumatized by the loss of their mother and the whole experience.
Although Jim Corbett is known for the man-eaters, he has writen a few touching stories in ‘My India’.
Two-year-old Putali and three-year-old Punwa wander in to a forest with full of wild life and get lost. When they were discovered after seventy-seven hours, there was not a single mark of tooth or claw on them.
The story ends with these great words.
Had the Creator made the same law for man as He has made for the jungle folk, there would be no wars, for the strong in man would have the same consideration for the weak as is the established law of the jungles.
Yes, the name of the story is ‘The Law of the Jungles’.
Now the kids have to cope with a slew of movie-makers offering megabucks for exclusive rights to their story.
Tribal lore probably doesn’t offer much help here, except the parts that say, “Run!”
#1 Venkataraman
“Had the Creator made the same law for man as He has made for the jungle folk, there would be no wars, for the strong in man would have the same consideration for the weak as is the established law of the jungles.”
A nice sentiment and poetically written, but I’m fairly certain the main reason the toddlers survived is that no animal large enough to eat a child and hungry enough to try happened upon them in that period. The idea that there exists some magnanimity within non-human animals seems a stretch.
Holms:
Well, yes. Because it’s a story. A touching story.
(https://www.google.com/search?q=jim+corbett+my+india)
Basically, I think your quotation really should have begun thus:
“The story ends with these great words.
Had the Creator made [blah]”
—
On-topic, yes, truly a remarkable story.
And they most certainly deserve credit for competence at survival, just as Mano noted, whatever the large predators did.
Oh, was it fiction? I had thought it a comment on a real event.
(sigh)
Venkataraman Amarnath thought of this story when he read this post, and mentioned it.
Anyway, yes, it’s fiction. As very clearly stated, from the first sentence.
Seems rather apposite to me.
That they were indigenous people is not a trivial detail. Note the grandmother giving thanks to the Earth. Indigenous cultures generally feel a connection to the land.
So what we (I) would perceive as a hostile wilderness full of predators, is instead an ecosystem that nourishes humans as much as other animals.
Sure, predation is part of that natural world; but so is steering clear of large mammals who may be predators themselves.
Holms forgets that these people (the culture, not the individuals) lived in this environment for thousands of years.
@ 2 Pierce R. Butler
The idea that indigenous people would “run” from “megabucks” strikes me as more than a little “noble savage” racist.
In case people don’t know what I’m talking about:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NobleSavage
#6
Items of news are often called stories.
A quick look suggests Corbett’s My India is classified as non-fiction.
Silentbob @ # 8: The idea that indigenous people would “run” from “megabucks” strikes me as more than a little “noble savage” racist.
No doubt. But coming from a 21st-century American with some exposure to corporate media, it represents more than a little “common sense”.
Excerpt:
(40 days is a lot more than 77 hours)
Silentbob @7, https://slate.com/human-interest/2023/06/amazon-kids-survival-plane-rescue.html
Populations of large carnivores are typically low in density. The highest recorded density of bengal tigers is some 14-17 individuals per 100 square kilometers.
https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2664.13410
This is in a protected area, relatively free of hunting or poaching, so not at all like the conditions tigers faced in Corbett’s era. One could assume that tiger population densities during the time Corbett and his cohort were actively hunting them was much lower.
I don’t know about you, but given the range of a solitary tiger at the time of Corbett’s pretty story of the children’s survival, I would estimate that a human could easily spend at least several days in the jungle without the misfortune of encountering a tiger.
Back to the OP, I am not surprised that indigenous children were able to survive so long in their home. In fact the shouts of ‘miracle’ I have heard about it completely ignore the fact that these people’s home is the jungle we so fear and discount the agency of these individuals and the society of which they are members They deserve respect and the right to continue living their ways. Their knowledge and skills will be invaluable in our not too distant future.