Five Baby Orangutans Discovered in Odisha Forest Trigger Trafficking Investigation

In the eastern Indian state of Odisha, five infant orangutans were found in a proposed reserve forest near the West Bengal border, prompting authorities to launch an inquiry into how the primates arrived in a country where they are not native.

Local residents spotted the young apes and alerted forest officials. The animals were rescued early Tuesday, given first aid, and then moved to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar where they are currently in quarantine and undergoing monitoring.

Forest Officer Pratik Prakash Indalkar said the victims could not have reached Odisha naturally and were likely transported by road. The five animals were found in Ranakata, a reserve forest covered mainly by casuarina trees and close to a state highway.

The Odisha government has called on the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to investigate, and police, forest officials and a special task force are now involved in the inquiry. Officials suspect the primates may have been trafficked into the country by an international smuggling network and abandoned near a highway.

The babies, some one to two years old, are among the youngest primates ever found in India. Wildlife experts warn that young orangutans typically stay with their mothers for several years, learning essential skills for survival. Females also breed infrequently, having a litter roughly every eight years. Thus, the discovery of a small group of orphaned infants far from their natural habitat raises serious concerns about illegal wildlife trade.

This is not the first time young orangutans have been found in India. In 2022, a pair of baby orangutans were abandoned at a checkpoint between Assam and Mizoram, suspected to have come from Myanmar. The continued appearance of orphaned primates highlights the persistence of the illicit wildlife trade, which is banned under CITES and protected by Indian wildlife laws but still persists for exotic pets and private collectors.