Police in northern India have rescued a young girl who is believed to have been living with monkeys in the jungle for a number of years.

Doctors at a hospital in Bahraich, south-east of New Delhi, said the girl was gradually shedding her animal-like traits and "becoming human" after she was found by police eight weeks ago and brought in for treatment.

She is unable to communicate except through irritable, unintelligible muttering, said Dr Arun Lal, the district chief medical officer who visited her on Thursday.

Believed to be around 8 to 10 years old, she walked on all fours for the first few weeks in hospital, but now she is standing on two legs and walking around normally, Dr Lal said.

Initially, he said, she was "highly aggressive", shunned human contact and was constantly trying to flee the hospital and had to be kept in close confinement.

Recently she started responding to humans around her and occasionally even held hands with some of the doctors and nurses attending on her.

The girl had been "horribly weak" and malnourished after she being rescued by police in late January from a troop of monkeys in Katarniaghat Wildlife sanctuary in Bahraich district near the Ganges River, her body covered with wounds and sores.