Rangers found five infant orangutans in a forest in Balasore district, in India’s eastern Odisha state, according to DW. The species is native to parts of Indonesia and Borneo and is not found in India. Indonesia’s Forestry Ministry has asked India to determine where the animals came from and return them if they originated abroad.
The Odisha government has asked the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau to investigate how the critically endangered apes reached the state. Odisha Forest and Environment Minister Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said officials suspect the animals may have been released in the forest by an international wildlife-smuggling network, although the source of the orangutans has not been established.
The discovery has renewed questions about India’s role in the illegal trade in exotic animals. Kanitha Krishnasamy of TRAFFIC told DW that finding orangutans on India’s eastern coast was “mind-boggling,” while conservation researcher Uttara Mendiratta said hundreds of species and thousands of individual animals have been trafficked into the country through air and land routes.
TRAFFIC figures cited by DW show that 7,272 live and dead animals were seized from passenger baggage in attempted smuggling between Thailand and India from January 2022 through May 2025. More than 80% of those interceptions took place in India. The seizures included reptiles, birds and mammals, many apparently intended for the exotic-pet market.
Recent cases cited by DW include the seizure of 40 rare animals arriving in Bengaluru from Kuala Lumpur in November 2024, 284 exotic animals arriving in Mumbai from Bangkok in June 2025, and 20 animals intercepted in Pune from Bangkok the following month. Officials and conservationists also described routes through Myanmar, Bangladesh and India’s northeastern land borders, in addition to air links with Thailand and Malaysia.
Experts told DW that demand for exotic pets and unregulated online marketplaces are helping drive the trade. Trishala Ashok of the conservation group Wildlife Protection Society of India said authorities often respond to individual seizures rather than investigating suppliers, financiers and buyers. She argued that a seizure should be the beginning of an investigation into the wider network, not its conclusion.