5 ‘lost’ baby orangutans found in Odisha forest
Five juvenile orangutans were discovered abandoned in a forest in Odisha, India, marking the first time the species has been recorded in the wild in the country. Authorities suspect the animals were part of an international wildlife trafficking network.
Why it matters
The incident exposes the reach of illegal transoceanic wildlife trafficking and the challenges of protecting exotic species in non-native regions.
BHUBANESWAR: Five juvenile orangutans, native to Southeast Asia and never recorded in the wild anywhere in India, were found abandoned Tuesday morning in a casuarina forest off NH-16 in Odisha’s Balasore district.Forest officials suspect a transoceanic trafficking network smuggled the apes, all less than a year old, into India and abandoned them near Badipada, in Chandaneswar, after realising they might be caught.Villagers spotted the orangutans dangling from tree branches inside the Bhogarai forest, about 40 km from the Balasore-Kolkata stretch of NH-16, and alerted the forest department.“Our field personnel visited the site and were surprised to discover that all five were baby orangutans, two of them females. As a crowd started gathering near the forest, we decided to bring a cage and safely secure the animals without using tranquillisers,” Balasore divisional forest officer Prateek Indalkar said.“The orangutans were extremely calm.
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