In brief
Five infant orangutans were spotted in a forest near the West Bengal border in Odisha, a state where the primates are not native. Local forest officials rescued them and took them to Nandankanan Zoo for care and quarantine while investigators probe how they arrived. Authorities suspect an international smuggling network abandoned the animals near a highway. The discovery raises concerns about illegal wildlife trade, especially since orangutans are critically endangered under IUCN and protected by CITES. This follows a 2022 incident where baby orangutans were found abandoned at an Indo‑Myanmar border checkpoint.
Five newborn orangutans were discovered in a forest near the West Bengal border in Odisha, India, a region where the primates are not native. The babies – some only one to two years old – were found together on the forest floor, eating bananas and seemingly abandoned, which prompted local forest officials to act quickly.
The animals were given basic first aid before being transported to Nandankanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar, where a quarantine team is monitoring their health. Odisha’s forest minister confirmed that investigators are considering whether the primates were smuggled into the country by an international abduction network and left near a state highway.
The five baby orangutans were found in Ranakata, a proposed reserve forest where the vegetation consists mainly of Casuarina trees and the area is not densely forested. The region’s close proximity to a highway has led authorities to suspect road transport as the means of bringing the animals into the forest.
The Odisha government, along with the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau, has tasked a special task force to investigate the case. The presence of young, orphaned orangutans far from the species' natural habitats in Indonesia and Malaysia raises serious concerns about the trafficking of critically endangered wildlife.
Orangutans are among the three known species of the genus, classified as Bornean, Sumatran and Tapanuli. All are listed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as critically endangered because of habitat loss, deforestation, and illegal hunting. International commercial trade in these primates is prohibited under CITES, yet they continue to be trafficked for exotic pets and private collectors.
This incident is not the first time orphaned baby orangutans have been found in India. In 2022, two infant orangutans were discovered abandoned near an Indo‑Myanmar checkpoint in Assam and Mizoram, leading authorities to suspect their arrival via neighboring Myanmar.
