{"id":2207438,"date":"2026-09-19T18:00:41","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T17:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/?p=2207438"},"modified":"2026-09-18T11:50:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:50:58","slug":"baby-orangutans-found-in-forest-in-india-spark-trafficking-investigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/baby-orangutans-found-in-forest-in-india-spark-trafficking-investigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Baby orangutans found in forest in India spark trafficking investigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in\u00a0India, prompting authorities to investigate if they were trafficked into the country from south-east Asia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The orangutans,\u00a0native only to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra\u00a0and known for their shaggy red fur, were found in Balasore district of Odisha state, thousands of kilometres away from their natural habitat.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Odisha: Five orangutans abandoned after suspected botched transit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/lwVPFvkhB6w\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><span data-mce-type=\"bookmark\" style=\"display: inline-block; width: 0px; overflow: hidden; line-height: 0;\" class=\"mce_SELRES_start\">\ufeff<\/span><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>Five baby orangutans found in forest in India in suspected smuggling incident<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Odisha\u2019s environment minister, Ram Singh Khuntia, said wildlife investigators were trying to establish how the rare apes reached India.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">\u201cWe suspect that an international racket might be involved in this,\u201d Singh said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">International commercial trade in orangutans is prohibited under Cites \u2013 a global agreement governing trade in endangered wildlife.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The five babies were found by forest department officials who were patrolling in the Jaleswar range in Balasore district.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Officials believed the orangutans had been in the area for just a few days, and they have now been placed in quarantine at a zoological park in Odisha.<\/p>\n<div class=\"ad-slot-container \" data-ad-slot=\"true\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">According to the World\u00a0Wildlife\u00a0Fund, about 104,000 orangutans remain in Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The Tapanuli orangutan (<em>Pongo tapanuliensis)<\/em>, a third species, is classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 800 believed to survive in the wild.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">In November, conservationists found the Tapanuli population had been\u00a0reduced by 7%\u00a0after severe flooding in Indonesia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Between 33 and 54 Tapanuli orangutans were estimated to have been killed in widespread floods and landslides in North Sumatra province.<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">Previous research has suggested annual losses of 1% of the Tapanuli orangutan population would be sufficient to lead to eventual extinction.<\/p>\n<p>[wildlife_premium_zone]<\/p>\n<p class=\"dcr-1s160rg\">The entire Tapanuli population dwells solely in the West Block of the Batang Toru, a forest threatened by mining, palm oil plantations and a large hydropower project.<\/p>\n<p><em>This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2026\/sep\/10\/baby-orangutans-found-india-trafficking-investigation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">article<\/a> by Guardian staff and Agence France-Presse was first published by The Guardian on 9 September 2026. Lead Image: Indian officials rescued five baby orangutans in an eastern forest on 8 September. Authorities suspect the rare apes were trafficked into India from south-east Asia. Photograph: Odisha Forest Department\/AFP\/Getty Images.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr style=\"border-top: 1px solid white;\" \/>\n<h2>Protect Wildlife Before It\u2019s Too Late<\/h2>\n<p>Whether you choose to make a one-time gift or a monthly subscription, you provide the critical funding needed to protect wildlife.<\/p>\n<p>Your immediate support makes a life-saving difference.<\/p>\n<div class=\"wp-responsive-cta\">\n<div style=\"text-align: left; margin: 32px 0; width: 100%;\"><script id=\"donorbox-popup-button-installer\" type=\"text\/javascript\" defer=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/install-popup-button.js\"><\/script><a id=\"preview_inline_popup_button\" class=\"dbox-donation-button\" style=\"background: #E53935; color: #ffffff; text-decoration: none; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; display: inline-block; font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold; border-radius: 5px; line-height: 28px; padding: 12px 32px;\" href=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/focusing-on-wildlife-needs-your-support?default_interval=m&amp;amount=50\" data-reminder-widget-enabled=\"true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow external noreferrer\" data-wpel-link=\"external\">Protect Wildlife Now<\/a><script type=\"module\" src=\"https:\/\/donorbox.org\/widgets.js\" async><\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"wp-responsive-cta-secure\">\n<div style=\"text-align: left; width: 100%;\"><em>&#x1f512; Secure checkout \u2022 Cancel easily anytime \u2022 100% secure<\/em><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>[\/wildlife_premium_zone]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in\u00a0India, prompting authorities to investigate if they were trafficked into the country from south-east Asia. The orangutans,\u00a0native only to the islands of Borneo and Sumatra\u00a0and known for their shaggy red fur, were found in Balasore district of Odisha state, thousands of kilometres away from their natural [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1178,"featured_media":2207439,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.guim.co.uk\/img\/media\/ef075d3ee7c7d89c5ae8ff68fdd8af1c01545dc0\/0_0_3082_2055\/master\/3082.jpg?width=465&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6985,5],"tags":[4713,10887,7664],"class_list":["post-2207438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wildlife","tag-orangutans","tag-tapanuli-orangutan","tag-trafficking"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207438\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2207439"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusingonwildlife.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}