Odisha authorities still unable to trace traffickers behind rescued orangutan infants

Five infant orangutans rescued from a casuarina forest in Balasore district, Odisha, remain under investigation after law-enforcement agencies failed to pinpoint the traffickers, their transport route, or the primates' source. The Crime Branch Special Task Force, supported by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau and state forest officials, examined footage from over 55 CCTV cameras and inspected more than 50 hotels in Digha, West Bengal, yet no breakthrough has been achieved.

Attention initially focused on a black Mahindra Thar seen near the forest on September 7, which directed investigators to hotelier Jayanta Maiti; raids uncovered a matching SUV but the hotel’s CCTV equipment had been removed and Maiti and his son were missing. Three hotel employees were questioned and released without connection to the crime. Investigators are now scrutinizing mobile tower records, movements at local ports and airports, and forensic evidence such as face masks recovered near the rescue site to assess whether the orangutans entered Odisha by land or sea. The infants are housed at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar and are reported to be in stable health, monitored by a five-member expert panel of veterinarians and wildlife specialists.