Indonesia seeks to bring back baby orangutans allegedly trafficked to India

Indonesian authorities are working to repatriate five baby orangutans allegedly trafficked to India, where they were found motherless in a forest, Jakarta’s forestry ministry told AFP on Friday.

The critically endangered animals were found Tuesday by rangers patrolling Balasore district in India’s eastern Odisha state.

Authorities suspect the primates, known for their shaggy red fur, were trafficked into India, sparking a criminal investigation.

The youngsters, estimated to be about 1 1/2 years old, appeared healthy and were being cared for at a zoo after their rescue, the ministry said in a statement.

Orangutans in the wild are native only to Indonesia’s Sumatra and Borneo, which it shares with Malaysia and Brunei.

The five infants appeared to be of Sumatran origin, the ministry said, and DNA tests will be used to confirm where they came from.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which lists Sumatran orangutans as critically endangered, the young of the species are weaned only at about 7 years of age.

The last estimate of the species’ population size, in 2016, was just over 13,500.

Critically endangered

The Indonesian government has requested that India hand over the apes, forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi told AFP on Friday.

“The forestry ministry has begun communicating with the government of India through the Indian embassy in Jakarta,” he said.

Jakarta has also been in touch with conservation NGOs to help rehabilitate the baby orangutans, the ministry statement added.

Sumatran orangutan population decline is blamed on habitat loss and fragmentation due to human encroachment, as well as illegal hunting.

The Tapanuli orangutan, another species native to Sumatra, is also classified as critically endangered, with fewer than 800 believed to be left in the wild.

Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, an NGO, said it supported bringing the primates home.

“Repatriation should be the priority,” he said. “In my opinion, the DNA tests can be done after repatriation.”

Wild orangutans have been under pressure in recent weeks from forest fires that have plagued the region and consumed swaths of Borneo.

In Borneo’s West Kalimantan province, at least 15 of the animals have been rescued from flames and haze since July, some stuck in plantations after fires cut off access to their forest home.

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