No breakthrough in probe into trafficking of five orangutans found in Odisha

Days after five endangered infant orangutans were rescued from a casuarina forest in Odisha’s Balasore district, the investigation into their mysterious appearance has hit a roadblock, with law enforcement agencies yet to identify the traffickers, their route, or the animals’ origin, officials familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The Crime Branch’s Special Task Force (STF), assisted by the Wildlife Crime Control Bureau (WCCB) and state forest officials, has examined footage from more than 55 CCTV cameras, searched more than 50 hotels in West Bengal’s Digha, and questioned several individuals, but has yet to make a breakthrough.

The probe initially centred on a black Mahindra Thar spotted near the Bichitrapur forest in Bhograi around 11.25 pm on September 7, hours before the animals were found clinging to trees in a nearby plantation near the West Bengal border.

The vehicle’s trail led investigators to a Digha-based hotelier, Jayanta Maiti.

But raids at his hotel yielded no additional information.

Officials said they found an SUV matching the description on the premises, but Maiti and his son were missing. The hotel’s CCTV recording equipment had also been removed. Three hotel employees were questioned but later released after no direct link to the trafficking racket was established.

“We have to proceed cautiously. If we share details of the investigation, those who perpetrated the crime will be alerted,” Odisha director general of police Vinaytosh Mishra said on Saturday, declining to reveal details about its probe.

An STF official said investigators were analysing mobile tower data, local port and airport movements, and forensic evidence from face masks recovered near the rescue site to determine whether the primates entered Odisha by land or sea.

The five infants currently housed at the Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar are in stable condition. Addressing reports that one infant had developed a fever, the zoo issued a health bulletin late on Monday night confirming that all five animals are doing well.

Chief Wildlife Warden Prem Kumar Jha said a five-member technical expert panel comprising veterinary officers from Mysuru Zoo, the National Zoological Park in New Delhi, the Wildlife Institute of India (WII), the Centre for Wildlife Health at OUAT, and the Nandankanan zoo director was monitoring the orangutans.