Agafia Lykova, 70, is waiting to be airlifted back to solitude after being treated for a pain in her leg

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A 70-year-old Siberian hermit is returning to solitude in the Russian wilderness after being airlifted to a hospital for treatment.

Agafia Lykova was discharged from care in Tashtagol, a town in Siberia’s Kemerovo region, on Tuesday but will stay there until state emergency services can airlift her home, the Russian news site Sobesednik.ru reported.

Lykova was taken to hospital last week after she notified the authorities of a leg pain via satellite phone.

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She was born in the Siberian wilderness near the Mongolian border. Her parents, members of the Old Believers sect that broke away from the Orthodox church in the 17th century, had fled there in the late 1930s, fearing religious persecution in the Soviet Union. The family lived in isolation until geologists happened upon them in 1978.

Lykova has lived alone since her father’s death in 1988. She has been out of the wilderness several times before for short periods but prefers the familiarity of rural Siberia.

“There are so many cars. Why do you need so many?” Lykova asked about city life during an interview this week with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda. “There’s so much smoke from them, there’s nothing to breathe.”