Baby orangutans found in India sought by Indonesia

Indonesia is working to repatriate five baby orangutans found motherless in a forest in eastern India, where authorities suspect they were trafficked, Jakarta's forestry ministry said.

The young orangutans were found on September 8 by rangers patrolling in Balasore district in Odisha state. The ministry said the animals, estimated to be about one-and-a-half years old, appeared healthy and were being cared for at a zoo after their rescue.

Forestry ministry spokesman Ristianto Pribadi said the Indonesian government had requested that India hand over the apes and had begun communicating with India through the Indian embassy in Jakarta.

The ministry said preliminary physical observations suggested the infants were of Sumatran origin. DNA tests will be used to confirm where they came from.

Orangutans in the wild are native only to Indonesia's Sumatra island and Borneo, which Indonesia shares with Malaysia and Brunei. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists Sumatran orangutans as critically endangered and says the species' young are weaned only at about seven years of age. Its last population estimate for the species, in 2016, was just over 13,500.

Jakarta has also contacted conservation groups to help rehabilitate the baby orangutans, the ministry said. Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, said repatriation should be the priority and that DNA tests could be done after the animals return.

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