Five baby orangutans found in Odisha, trafficking angle probed

Five baby orangutans have been found abandoned in a forest in Odisha, thousands of kilometers away from their natural habitat. The discovery has now sparked a major investigation with authorities suspecting a possible international wildlife trafficking network. Videos and photographs show the young apes sitting together on the forest floor and eating bananas. But orangutans are not native to India. The critically endangered great apes are found in the wild only in Indonesia and Malaysia, making their sudden appearance in Odisha deeply mysterious. The five baby orangutans were found in the Ranakata forest area of Balasore district near the West Bengal border. Local residents spotted the animals and alerted forest officials who rescued them early on Tuesday. The animals were given first aid before being shifted to a zoological park in Bhubaneswar where they have been kept in quarantine and are under constant monitoring. Forest officials say the animals could not have reached Odisha naturally. Investigators believe they may have been transported into India and then abandoned near a highway. The area where they were found is not a dense forest and is located close to a major road, further strengthening suspicions that the animals may have been left there deliberately. The Odisha government has reportedly sought the help of India's Wildlife Crime Control Bureau with police, forest officials and special investigators now trying to trace their origin. What makes the case even more disturbing is the age of the animals. The orangutans are believed to be infants or just one to two years old.