Bhubaneswar/Baleshwar: A day after at least five orangutans were rescued from a forest in Odisha’s Baleshwar district, a joint probe was launched by the state police’s STF and the WCCB on suspicion that an international wildlife smuggling racket might be behind the animals’ sudden appearance here.
State Forest and Environment Minister Ganesh Ram Singhkhuntia Wednesday said the joint probe by the Special Task Force (STF) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) would look into how the animals came to Baleshwar, who brought them to the forest and who was involved in such activities.
Given the high value of the animals — an orangutan can fetch Rs 20-25 lakh in international markets — it is suspected that they were smuggled from foreign forests, he said.
The minister said orangutans are not found in India and are native to rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia, including the islands of Borneo and Sumatra in Southeast Asia.
The animals were rescued and kept in quarantine at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar.
“A team of veterinary doctors are monitoring the health of the animals, and they are stable. I will visit them today. These rare animals are kept in an air-conditioned atmosphere,” the minister said.
Odisha STF Inspector General Himansu Lal said a team led by an SP-rank officer had already left for Baleshwar and started a probe into the matter.
“We are at the preliminary stage of investigation and presently collecting data and facts available locally. We are in contact with the central government’s IG, wildlife, and seeking to know whether a similar incident had ever happened in any part of the country,” STF DIG Vishal Singh said.
The STF team contacted the Baleshwar district SP and DFO and collected details regarding the rescue of the rare animals from a casuarina forest in the Bichitrapur area of Bhograi block in Baleshwar district.
Meanwhile, forest officials and local police went door to door to collect information regarding the incident.
Villagers first spotted the young apes clinging to trees on Tuesday morning and immediately alerted the forest department, Baleshwar Divisional Forest Officer Prateek Prakash Indalkar said.
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 Baleshwar,” 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.
Authorities at Nandankanan Zoological Park said three of the five animals were males and two females, aged between six months and one year and standing roughly one to one-and-a-half feet tall.
All five are currently being provided food and oral rehydration solutions, they said.
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.
The minister said the state government has urged the Central Zoo Authority to allow it to keep the five baby orangutans at the Nandankanan Zoological Park.
