Five young orangutans were rescued from a casuarina forest near Badapai village in Balasore district, Odisha, after local residents spotted them on September 8. Forest officials rushed to the area and safely brought the animals to the Udaipur forest office for medical observation.
The discovery has raised serious concerns because orangutans are not native to India. They naturally occur in the rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. Officials said there is no natural migration route connecting their habitat to Odisha, making human involvement highly likely.
Forest authorities suspect that the animals could have been abandoned by poachers or wildlife traffickers who were unable to transport them further. However, officials have stressed that the exact circumstances are still being investigated and that trafficking has not yet been conclusively established.
The five orangutans were placed under veterinary care, with reports indicating that four were healthy and eating. They have since been moved to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar, where they are being kept in quarantine and monitored by veterinary experts.
The Forest Department has launched a detailed investigation and a search of nearby forest areas to determine how the critically endangered animals reached Odisha and whether any wider wildlife-trafficking network is involved
News as reported
