GUWAHATI: The Odisha Forest Department rescued five young orangutans from a casuarina plantation in the Udayapur-Talsari forest area of Balasore district after the animals were found abandoned during a routine patrol.
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The discovery has raised questions over how the orangutans, which are not native to India, ended up in a forested area on Odisha’s east coast.
Forest personnel found the animals in the Udayapur section of the Jaleswar Range. The rescued orangutans are believed to be between six months and one year old and include three males and two females.
The animals are native to the tropical rainforests of Sumatra and Borneo, with populations found in Indonesia and Malaysia. They are not naturally found in India.
Officials suspect that the orangutans may have been brought into the country illegally by wildlife smugglers. Their young age has also raised concerns that they could have been separated from their mothers after being taken from the wild.
Orangutan offspring typically remain dependent on their mothers for several years, with young orangutans known to stay with their mothers for around seven to nine years in the wild.
The state government has urged the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) to investigate how the animals reached the Bichitrapur forest area under Bhograi block and determine whether an organised wildlife trafficking network was involved.
Principal Conservator of Forests (Wildlife) and Chief Wildlife Warden Prem Kumar Jha told the media that the Forest Department would conduct a detailed investigation into the circumstances surrounding the discovery.
The rescued animals have been taken into the care of the Forest Department, while officials continue to investigate their origin and how they were transported to Odisha.