By Trinath Mohanty, OP
Bhubaneswar: A month after five orangutan infants were rescued from the Bichitrapur forest in Bhograi under Baleshwar district September 8, the Crime Branch’s Special Task Force (STF), which is investigating the case, has failed to make any major breakthrough.
The investigation, which began in Baleshwar and extended to West Bengal, appears to have stalled midway. Despite indications of an international wildlife trafficking racket behind the operation, the STF has made little progress till now.
It has failed to trace Jayanta Maity, suspected to be the kingpin of the racket in India, and his son, let alone arrest them or gather substantial evidence against them. Investigators have questioned employees at Maity’s hotel and members of his family but have made no significant headway.
Wildlife enthusiasts allege that the Odisha Crime Branch lacks the capacity to pursue an investigation beyond the country’s borders, given the suspected international links. There are concerns that the case may eventually be shelved.
The concerns have gained significance in the wake of the state Transport Minister’s statement that an international gang was involved in the racket. Questions are now being raised over the STF’s failure to identify and apprehend those behind the alleged trafficking network. Investigators suspect that the five orangutan infants were brought to West Bengal from another country and taken first to Maity’s hotel in Digha, where the alleged mastermind is believed to have operated.
They were subsequently moved to the Bichitrapur forest in Baleshwar, where a deal was reportedly being negotiated. The infants are suspected to have been kept at these locations for around 10 days. Environmentalists fear that, as in several other cases, the orangutan trafficking investigation may lose momentum and eventually be buried.
They warn that failure to dismantle the network could allow wildlife smugglers to continue using Odisha as a transit route for trafficking rare and exotic animals. Bhograi, a coastal region in Baleshwar district, has extensive beaches and forested areas.
Its geographical features have raised concerns that wildlife traffickers may have previously used the region and maritime routes along the Baleshwar coast to smuggle animals. Similar cases have been reported in other parts of the country.
Two orangutan infants were seized in Assam’s Cachar district in 2022. In Oc tober 2023, another infant was rescued in Aizawl district of Mizoram, while an orangutan was rescued in Maharashtra’s Thane district in November 2024. The alleged links between these cases and an international wildlife trafficking network are suspected to extend to Odisha.
The STF has contacted police in the four states in an attempt to gather information but has reportedly made little progress. With investigations in those states also failing to yield significant results, questions remain over how the Odisha police expect to dismantle an international trafficking network through inter-state coordination alone.