Five Young Orangutans Rescued in Odisha Forest as Trafficking Probe Begins
Forest teams in Odisha rescued five young orangutans on the morning of September 8, 2026. The animals were far from any natural range. India has no wild orangutan population. The species lives only in Indonesia and Malaysia.
Locals spotted them around 6 a.m. in casuarina woodland. Photos and videos of the red-haired apes eating bananas spread quickly online. Officials then moved in.
Balasore District Forest Officer Pratik Prakash Indalkar said the five were found at Ranakata, a proposed reserve forest in Bhogarai block, near the West Bengal border. Casuarina trees dominate the patch. It is not dense rainforest. A state highway runs close by.
A sweep of the area found no more orangutans. Authorities called them infants. Some residents said they looked one or two years old. Reports later described three males and two females. Officials believe they had been in the patch for only a short time.
They could not have walked there from Southeast Asia. Indalkar said road transport is the likely explanation. Teams gave first aid and moved the animals to Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar. They are now in quarantine and under watch.
Odisha Forest Minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said investigators are checking whether an international smuggling network brought them in and left them near the highway. Police, the Special Task Force, and the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau are part of the inquiry. Airports, stations, and ports have been asked to review camera footage.
Orangutans are listed as critically endangered. Three living species are recognised: Bornean, Sumatran, and Tapanuli. Their home is tropical forest on Borneo and Sumatra. Young animals usually stay with their mothers for years while they learn to survive. Females breed slowly. Habitat loss has cut numbers for decades.
This is not India’s first such find. In 2022, two young orangutans were recovered on the Assam–Mizoram border. International commercial trade is banned under CITES. Indian law also protects the species under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972. Demand from the illegal pet trade still puts infants at risk.
Zoo officials will follow central protocols. A decision on any later public display needs approval from the Central Zoo Authority. For now the priority is health, quarantine, and the origin investigation.