Officials rescued five baby orangutans in an eastern forest, a state minister said, with authorities suspecting they were trafficked into the country from South-East Asia.
The orangutans, native to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, were found in Balasore district of Odisha state.
They were “found when the Forest Department was patrolling in the Udaipur section under the Jaleswar range in Balasore district,” said Odisha Environment Minister Ram Singh Khuntia.
Khuntia said investigators were trying to establish how the rare apes reached India, adding that the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau would probe the case.
“We suspect that an international racket might be involved in this,” Khuntia said.
The animals have been placed in quarantine at a zoological park in Odisha.
According to the World Wildlife Fund, around 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago. — AFP
