Odisha: Five baby orangutans found in India forest spark trafficking investigation - BBC News

The critically endangered apes were found far from their natural habitat in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Image source, Nandankanan, BhubaneswarImage caption, Orangutans are critically endangered species and not native to India

Five baby orangutans have been found in a forest in India's eastern state of Odisha, far from their natural habitat, prompting an investigation into how they got there.

Photographs and videos widely shared online show the young apes sitting together on the forest floor and eating bananas, thousands of kilometres from the tropical rainforests where they belong.

Orangutans are not native to India. The critically endangered apes are found in the wild only in Indonesia and Malaysia.

Odisha's forest minister has said investigators are examining whether the animals were trafficked into the country by an international smuggling network and abandoned near a highway.