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Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MLA Goutam Buddha Das on Saturday expressed concern over the recent rescue of five young orangutans in the state and demanded a joint probe by central agencies, claiming that the incident raises serious questions regarding international wildlife smuggling and regional security.
Speaking on the ongoing controversy, BJD MLA Goutam Buddha Das said, "...young Orangutans have raised serious questions about how they reached our region from Indonesia and whether there is any smuggling. It has been five days, but the STF and Forest Department have still not reached the suspected smugglers..." Raising questions over the pace of the local investigation, the BJD leader called for the intervention of premier national investigation bodies. "If orangutans can be smuggled from Indonesia, it raises other security concerns as well... The investigation should therefore involve central agencies such as the NIA, CBI and IB through a joint inquiry, rather than being limited to the STF and Forest Department," Das added. Five orangutans were found near Badapali village under Bhograi Block of Balasore Division in Odisha on Tuesday morning, prompting the Forest Department to launch an investigation into how the animals reached the area. According to Balasore DFO Indalkar Pratik Prakash, forest officials received information from a VSS member at around 6 AM about five animals believed to belong to the monkey species. "When our staff arrived and inspected the site located near Barpai village in Bhograi Block, they discovered that the animals were actually orangutans," the DFO said. The officials found that all five were young and were not moving around much, though they were alert and active. The animals were initially provided food at the spot. As a crowd began gathering at the location, forest officials rescued the orangutans and shifted them to the Udaipur Section Office for proper assessment. The DFO said the animals' young age and limited mobility suggested that they could not have travelled a long distance on their own. He also said that surviving overnight in the area would have been difficult due to the presence of animals such as jackals, foxes, dogs and langurs. "Smuggling is a possibility, but we cannot state that conclusively right now because we haven't found any evidence regarding it," Prakash said. He added that since orangutans are not native to the area and do not naturally migrate across such habitats, the Forest Department suspects human intervention. "We will investigate who brought them, and only then will we be able to say for sure," he said. The five orangutans, two females and three males, are approximately one year old. Forest officials, veterinarians and biologists examined the animals, while the department also coordinated with scientists from Nandankanan and the Wildlife Trust of India (WTI). (ANI)
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