Authorities have opened an investigation after five orangutans were rescued from a forest in Odisha’s Balasore district. Investigators are said to be focusing on a suspicious black SUV that was recorded on CCTV and seen by local residents.
This development follows the rescue of five orangutans from a forest in Odisha just a day earlier.
According to news agency PTI, STF DIG Vishal Singh stated that the probe was still in its initial phase.
According to Singh, there are currently in the preliminary stage of investigation and are gathering locally available data and information and are in touch with the central government’s Inspector General of Wildlife to determine whether a similar incident has ever occurred anywhere else in the country.
Forest officials and local police spoke with residents to gather information.
Balasore Divisional Forest Officer Prateek Prakash Indalkar stated that villagers first noticed the young animals clinging to trees on Tuesday morning and then informed the forest department.
Furthermore, residents reported spotting a black SUV on a road near the forest on Monday night, the report stated. A local Odisha news channel posted video on X which claims that the orangutan was spotted by the car at the midnight hours.
The vehicle was also captured in CCTV footage. According to a local police officer, identifying the SUV and its owner could provide clues about how the baby orangutans appeared in the area.
The state police’s Special Task Force (STF) and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) have initiated a joint investigation. According to the report, authorities suspect that an international wildlife smuggling network may be responsible for the presence of the orangutans.
The Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) reports that India functions both as an origin and a destination for wildlife trafficking. Its extensive coastline and international airports serve as transit hubs within broader trafficking routes.
The airports in Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Bengaluru, along with the Chennai Port and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, are major points used to move wildlife into and out of the country.
According to the report, officials at Nandankanan Zoological Park stated that three of the five animals are male and two are female, with ages ranging from six months to one year and a height of about one to one-and-a-half feet.
The orangutans are being given food and oral rehydration solutions. The park has a dedicated enclosure for orangutans, but it has been vacant since the death of an orangutan in 2019.
Orangutans are large apes with reddish-brown fur that spend most of their lives in trees. They are critically endangered and inhabit the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, but they do not occur in India.