Probe Ordered as Orangutans Not Indigenous to India Found in Odisha Forest

New Delhi: At least five orangutan babies, which are not indigenous to India and are critically endangered, were rescued in a forest in Odisha's Balasore district. The state government has urged the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to look into how the animals could have landed at the Bichitrapur forest area under Bhograi block.

PTI has reported forest and environment minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia as having said that the five orangutans were rescued by the forest patrolling team on September 8.

The authorities, according to PTI, suspect that wildlife smugglers might be behind the animals' sudden appearance. Orangutans are great apes which are native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia.

This probably means that they were taken from their wild habitats and removed from their mothers. Orangutan babies spend seven to nine years with their mothers in the wild.

We suspect that they might have been released in the Balasore district forest which borders West Bengal by an international wildlife smuggling racket,” Singhkhuntia said.

He said, according to PTI, that the price of each of these orangutans is Rs 20-Rs 25 lakh in the international market.

The report also noted that a team of veterinary doctors from Simlipal National Park are keeping the orangutans under watch. The animals will be kept in Nandan Kanan Zoo in Bhubaneswar.

Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Prem Kumar Jha told PTI that the Forest Department will conduct a detailed investigation into the matter.

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