NEW DELHI: Five baby orangutans have been rescued from a forest in eastern India, with authorities suspecting the endangered animals may have been smuggled into the country from Southeast Asia as part of an international wildlife trafficking operation.
The orangutans were discovered in Balasore district in the eastern state of Odisha yesterday (Sept 8) during a routine patrol by the state Forest Department.
Odisha Environment Minister Ram Singh Khuntia said the animals were found in the Udaipur section under the Jaleswar forest range.
Authorities are now investigating how the orangutans, which are not native to India, ended up in the forest.
Khuntia said the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau would investigate the case, with authorities suspecting an international trafficking syndicate could be involved.
The five animals have since been placed under quarantine at a zoological park in Odisha.
Orangutans are native only to the Southeast Asian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, making their discovery in India particularly unusual.
Borneo, which is shared by Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei, is home to the Bornean orangutan, including populations found in the forests of Sarawak and Sabah.
The great apes, recognised by their distinctive reddish-brown hair, have suffered severe population declines due to habitat loss, deforestation and illegal wildlife trafficking.
According to the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), about 104,000 orangutans are estimated to remain in Borneo and Sumatra, compared with more than 230,000 a century ago.
A third species, the Tapanuli orangutan, is critically endangered, with fewer than 800 individuals believed to remain in the wild.
The latest discovery is expected to prompt further investigation into the route used to bring the animals into India and whether their rescue is linked to a wider transnational wildlife trafficking network.
