Baby orangutans found in Indian forest spark trafficking inquiry
Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in Odisha, far from their natural habitat, sparking an investigation into how they came to be there.
Photographs and videos widely shared on social media show the young apes sitting together on the forest floor, eating bananas thousands of kilometres from the tropical rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia where they belong.
Orangutans are critically endangered and not native to India; they occur in the wild only in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Odisha’s forest minister said investigators are examining whether the animals were trafficked into the country via an international smuggling network and abandoned near a highway.
The animals were rescued early on Tuesday after local villagers spotted them and alerted forest officials. They received first aid before being taken to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, where they are now in quarantine.
Forest Officer Pratik Prakash Indalkar explained that the orangutans could not have reached Odisha naturally and may have been transported by road. He noted the animals were found in Ranakata, a proposed reserve forest close to the West Bengal border, in the Bhogarai block.
The Odisha government has requested that India’s Wildlife Crime Control Bureau investigate. Police, forest officials, and a special task force have been tasked with the inquiry.
Officials believe the animals had been in the area for only two or three days. No other orangutans or clues were found, and the young age of the animals—some say one to two years old—has heightened concerns about their welfare and the possible background of smuggling.
Wildlife expert Biswajit Mohanty noted that young orangutans typically stay with their mothers for several years and that females reproduce slowly, usually giving birth once every eight years, underscoring the gravity of abandoning several infant apes together.
Orangutans are classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and are protected under CITES and Indian wildlife laws. Despite this, they continue to be trafficked for exotic pet markets and private collectors.
