"The forest was my friend; I learnt a lot from it!"

Bravo! | Jungle Girl Juliane

‘The Forest was my Friend’

Meet the Jungle Girl Juliane Koepcke – the Amazon plane crash survivor, 1971

In today’s edition of the Malayala Manorama newspaper, I chanced upon yet another interesting parallel that connects with the four children’s ordeal in the Amazonian jungle.

It’s about the 17-year old Juliane who survived a two-mile fall and found herself alone in the Amazonian jungle!

On 24th December 1971, Juliane Koepcke was flying over the Peruvian rainforest with her mother when her plane was hit by lightning.

Says Juliane Koepcke –

My free fall is quiet. I see nothing around me. The seat belt squeezes my belly so tight that I can’t breathe. Before I feel fear, I lose consciousness.

When I come to, I’m upside down, still falling, the Peruvian rain forest spinning slowly toward me. The densely packed treetops remind me of broccoli. I see everything as if through a fog before I pass out again.

I spent my whole childhood in the forests of Peru. The forest was my friend; I learnt a lot from it. And we knew each other well. I often call myself the ‘jungle child’.

Julianne! Photo Credits: ABC

Luckily, I’d lived in the jungle long enough as a child to be acquainted with the bugs and other creatures that scurry, rustle, whistle, and snarl.

So when I met with that horrible crash and opened my eyes to the eerily silent Amazon rainforest, I didn’t feel clueless…I remembered the lessons my parents had taught me about tackling the jungle.

For more on her ordeal and her subsequent survival, you may want to read her memoir titled, When I Fell from the Sky.

PS: For more insights on ‘Forests and the Pastoral in Literature,’ you may want to read our past post HERE on the subject.