Bhubaneswar: A team from the wildlife crime control bureau (WCCB) is rushing to Odisha’s Balasore district after 5 orangutans, all less than a year old, were found in a casuarina forest near NH-16 on Tuesday morning.The critically-endangered great apes, native to Southeast Asia and not found in the wild in India, are suspected to have been abandoned by traffickers at a forest near Badipada (Chandaneswar) in Balasore fearing arrest. State officials believe the animals may have reached Odisha through an international trans-oceanic trafficking network.Forest minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia said the WCCB would conduct a detailed investigation to identify the animals’ origin and uncover how they reached Odisha. “The probe will be undertaken by the WCCB, which will go into the details of how the animals landed in Balasore and from where they were brought since they are not available in India in their natural habitat,” the minister said.The five animals were spotted early Tuesday morning dangling from tree branches inside the Bhogarai forest area, located around 40 km from the Balasore-Kolkata stretch of NH-16. Initially, people who noticed the unusual animals informed forest officials, believing that a rare species of monkeys had strayed into the area.When forest personnel reached the spot, they were stunned to discover that the animals were actually orangutans, one of the world’s most critically endangered great apes and a species not found in India’s natural habitats.“After our field personnel visited the site, to their surprise the 5 were all orangutans, including 2 females and 3 males. As a crowd started gathering near the forest, we decided to bring a cage and safely secure the animals without using tranquilisers. The orangutans were extremely calm and meek. They could be handled by hand and placed inside the cage without any difficulty,” said divisional forest officer (DFO), Balasore, Prateek Indalkar.Officials suspect the orangutans may have entered India through an international trafficking route. Indalkar said the animals could have been transported in a vehicle travelling from Kolkata to Balasore. “Since orangutans are not available in India, we suspect they may have come from Malaysia to Kolkata by ship. However, WCCB has the expertise to determine the exact species and identify the country from which they originated,” he added.Chief wildlife warden Prem Kumar Jha said orangutans have previously been trafficked and kept illegally as exotic pets by wealthy individuals in several countries. “Whether the animals were being taken to Kolkata for sale to affluent buyers or were being moved from Kolkata to another destination will be established soon. The WCCB is the agency best equipped to investigate such a case,” he said.Following a medical examination in Balasore, the rescued orangutans were shifted to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, where they have been housed at the animal rescue centre. Forest authorities said a decision on their long-term rehabilitation and future custody will be taken after the WCCB completes its investigation.
