5 Orangutans, 1 ‘Black SUV’: Mystery Deepens Over How They Reached Odisha
Five Orangutans found in Odisha’s Balasore have sparked a suspected wildlife trafficking probe, with authorities tracing their mysterious arrival.
By Sakshi
New Delhi, September 9: On Tuesday morning, a group of villagers spotted five young orangutans clinging to a tree in Odisha's Balasore and immediately informed the local police as they were surprised by their sudden appearance. Orangutans are not native to India. Given their high value in the international market, it is suspected that the apes were smuggled into India but were abandoned out of fear. When questioned the locals, they said they saw nothing wrong, except a black SUV.
The Special Task Force (STF) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) have launched a joint investigation to find out what happened. As of now, the animals - three males and two females - have been kept in quarantine at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar after being rescued from the Bhogarai forest area, around 40 kilometres from NH-16 between Balasore and Kolkata.
The WCCB and the STF will carry out a detailed inquiry to determine the animals' origin and how they reached Odisha, Forest Minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia said.
The minister said orangutans are not found in India and are native to the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia, including the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia. He added that he would visit the young apes in Bhubaneswar.
“They are cool and not harming anyone or getting irritated due to human presence,” a senior forest official said.
Black SUV Mystery
Local people have so far reported seeing a black SUV on a road near the forest on Monday night. The vehicle was also spotted in CCTV footage. "Therefore, locating the SUV and its owner could give some clue to the arrival of the baby orangutans in Balasore," a local police officer said.
The Odisha forest department has also sent messages to zoos across the country seeking information on whether any orangutan was missing from their facilities, the minister said.
CCTV footage from airports, ports and major railway stations is being examined, while the Coast Guard has also been contacted to verify whether its personnel had come across any transportation of the animals through water routes, he said.
Meanwhile, forest officials and local police went door to door to collect information regarding the incident.
'Villagers Mistake Orangutans For Rare Monkeys'
Balasore Divisional Forest Officer Prateek Prakash Indalkar said the locals had mistaken the apes for a rare species of monkey and thought they had lost their way in the area, prompting them to inform the forest department.
“When our field personnel visited the site, to their surprise, the five were orangutans, including two females and three males. As a crowd started gathering near the forest, we decided to bring a cage and safely secure the animals without using tranquillisers. The orangutans were extremely calm and meek. They could be handled by hand and placed inside the cage without any difficulty,” Balasore Divisional Forest Officer Prateek Indalkar said, according to a report by TOI.
“We suspect they may have been brought by ship from Malaysia to Kolkata,” he added.
Does India Have the Capacity to Take Care of Orangutans?
Nandankanan Zoological Park has a special enclosure for orangutans, but it has remained empty since the death of one such animal in 2019 at the age of 41.
A female orangutan was brought from Pune Zoo to Nandankanan in 2003. All five are currently being provided food and oral rehydration solutions, officials said.
(With PTI Inputs)
