- Five baby orangutans rescued in Balasore district, Odisha, during forest department patrol.
- Authorities suspect the apes were trafficked into India from Southeast Asia, possibly by an international racket.
- The animals were found in the Udaipur section under the Jaleswar range, officials said.
- Wildlife Crime Control Bureau will investigate while the rescued orangutans are quarantined at an Odisha zoo.
- WWF reports about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra; Tapanuli species critically endangered with under 800 left.
Indian officials rescued five baby orangutans in an eastern forest on Tuesday, a state minister said, with authorities suspecting they were trafficked into the country from Southeast Asia.
The orangutans, native only to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra and known for their shaggy red fur, were found in Balasore district of Odisha state.
They were “found when the Forest Department was patrolling in the Udaipur section under the Jaleswar range in Balasore district,” Odisha Environment Minister Ram Singh Khuntia told the IANS news agency.
Khuntia said investigators were trying to establish how the rare apes reached India, adding that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau would probe the case.
“We suspect that an international racket might be involved in this,” Singh said.
The animals have been placed in quarantine at a zoological park in Odisha.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), around 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago.
The Tapanuli orangutan, a third species, is classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 800 believed to survive in the wild.
