Latest / Best of: Features / Baby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question a billionaire’s zoo

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Baby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question a billionaire’s zoo · Best of: Features

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  Baby orangutans in India expose illegal wildlife trade as experts question a
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  billionaire zoo. Written by Anaruda Gosal and Victoria Milko. This
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  article is being read by an automated voice generated by Everlet. Hanoi,
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  Vietnam, the AP The villagers who spotted the five baby orangutans in
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  a Kassarina forest in India in early September were puzzled by their
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  reddish hair and unfamiliar faces. The three males and two O females,
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  aged six to eight months, were left on a plantation in eastern
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  India's Odisha, over two thousand seven hundred kilometers, one thousand seven hundred
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  miles from their native rainforests in Borneo and Sumatra, evidence of a
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  growing illicit trade of apes being trafficked into India. They're now at
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  an Indian zoo, where keepers reportedly have been playing classical music to
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  soothe the wild, orangutans are native only to The
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  islands of Borneo and Sumatra, where they sustain rainforests by spreading seeds
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  across vast areas, allowing trees to regenerate and store carbon that would
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  otherwise contribute to global warming. The species is critically endangered, threatened by
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  severe habitat loss. There are about one hundred nineteen thousand five hundred
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  orangutans left in the wild, according to Conservation Organization World Wildlife Fund.
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  The global illegal wildlife trade is estimated to be worth thirty-four billion
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  dollars annually, according to a 2026 study by National University of Singapore
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  researchers, and India is emerging as an important market. Experts say seizures
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  reflect a fraction of a booming trade in exotic or non-native animals
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  sold to wealthy Indian collectors. India's wildlife laws were mainly designed to
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  protect native species such as elephants, rhinoceroses and tigers from being trafficked
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  overseas. Gaps in controls on imported animals complicate efforts to trace the
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  origins of exotic wildlife. In 2022, two O juvenile Sumatran orangutans
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  were found in boxes at a checkpoint between the northeastern states of
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  Assam and Mizoram, another was rescued in Mizoram in 2023, and a
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  young orangutan was found in an apartment near Mumbai in November 2024.
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  At least twenty three gibbons were seized at Indian airports in 2025,
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  according to an analysis by nonprofit Wildlife Trust of India. In May
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  2026, Egyptian authorities seized three India-bound sedated baby chimpanzees. India
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  has become the number one destination for the live trade of primates,
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  said Sinan Sarhadli, a wildlife trafficking expert at the Orangutan Information Center
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  in Indonesia's North Sumatra province. India's exotic wildlife trade and Southeast Asian
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  trafficking routes. Wealthy collectors who prize rare animals as state symbols are
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  driving the trade in trafficked animals from Southeast Asia, a regional hub
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  for trade. And species from elsewhere, said Uttara Menderada, a wildlife trafficking
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  researcher in India Expanding tourism has led to more direct flights to
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  India through cities like Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, giving traffickers routes
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  that are faster, albeit riskier, than overland border crossings. The profit margins
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  are so high that they can afford to lose a few animals
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  and still make a profit, Menderada said. Questions also surround legal trade.
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  Most commercial trade in
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  orangutans is banned, but exceptions exist for captive bred animals India imported
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  forty one orangutans between twenty twenty one and twenty twenty four, according
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  to CITES, the global treaty regulating trade in endangered wildlife. Sinan Serhadli,
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  a wildlife trafficking expert at Indonesia's Orangutan Information Center, questioned whether the
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  animals were legitimately bred in captivity. It just shows the loopholes, and
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  corruption as well, he said. The City Secretariat declined to comment, saying
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  the matter was under review. Loofholes in India's wildlife laws enable wildlife
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  traffickers. But Concerned about diseases spreading from animals to people during the
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  COVID nineteen pandemic, India allowed people to register their exotic animals in
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  2020 without proving their origins. They can report births, deaths, and breeding
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  of non native species through an online portal, but the government lacks
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  enough staff and expertise to adequately inspect collections and identify global species.
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  The system also leaves room for trafficked animals to be misrepresented as
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  registered ones, Menderada said. India tightened its wildlife laws in twenty twenty
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  two, giving authorities clearer powers to seize illegally traded exotic animals and
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  prosecute traffickers. But by then it already had opened the floodgates, she
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  said. India's exotic pet trade sits at the crossroads of biodiversity loss,
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  unbridled community demand, and organized criminal activity, said a twenty twenty six
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  report by Humane World for Animals India. India's Forest Ministry didn't respond
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  to the AP's request for comment. Indonesia's
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  Ministry of Forestry said it was taking active steps to bring home
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  the five baby orangutans found in Odisha, sending experts to verify their
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  origins and assess their health. Their mothers were likely killed, traumatizing infants
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  that normally would depend on The for up to nine years. Conservationists
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  have successfully returned orangutans to Indonesia from Thailand, but so far only
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  one has been repatriated from India. When one orangutan was transferred last
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  year to a private wildlife facility known as Vantara, run by billionaire
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  Mukesh Ambani's family, India's Federal Wildlife Officials and India's Saitese Authority were
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  not informed, a federal wildlife official in New Delhi wrote in a
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  report. Officials concerned over the orangutan's care at a local public zoo
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  ordered It
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  transferred to Vantara which describes itself as a wildlife rescue and rehabilitation
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  center. The orangutan was treated for a respiratory infection and pneumonia, before
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  it was returned to Indonesia on october nineteenth, after nineteen months, at
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  the private facility. India's CITES Authority didn't respond to the AP's request
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  for comment. Ventara fully supported this process and worked with the relevant
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  authorities to facilitate his return, the company said in a written statement.
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  Questions over they world's rarest great ape in Indian Zoo. Vantara, a
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  3,500-acre wildlife facility in western India, has over 150,000 animals and
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  over 2,000 different species. It has faced international scrutiny over its animal
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  acquisitions. In november twenty twenty five, CTs questioned shipments to Vintara that
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  included snow leopards from Germany, a bonobo said to have been bred
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  in Iraq and a gorilla reportedly from Haiti. The
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  primates are not native to those countries. India's Supreme Court cleared Vantara
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  of wildlife trafficking and animal mistreatment allegations in 2025. In September, twenty
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  seven Wildlife Conservation and Animal Welfare organizations issued a letter urging the
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  facility to end imports of wild animals, raising concerns about endangered species
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  and animal welfare. The group said.
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  They had never encountered anything comparable to the scale and diversity of
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  Ventara's imports, citing more that sixty thousand animals acquired in a short
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  period. One controversial acquisition, according to Ventara's 2024 25 inventory, is
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  a Tapanuli orangutan the world's rarest great ape. Recognized as a distinct
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  species only in 2017, it's only found in a small area of
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  Indonesia's Sumatra Island, where seven hundred and sixteen remain in the wild.
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  The Tapanulli orangutan is hovering just above extinction, said Sir Hadley, whose
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  organization is one of The few that works with the species. The
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  one at Vantara would be the only Tapanulli orangutan in captivity. Said's
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  trade data shows that the animal left Indonesia in twenty twenty four
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  and arrived in India via the United Arab Emirates. That can't happen
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  legally, Sir Hadley said. In its statement, Vantara disputed that, saying the
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  animal was legally imported into India, though it added that the prior
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  chain of custody remained to be clarified with the United Arab Emirates.
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  Indonesia's Ministry Forestry said it was taking seriously reports that a Tapanuli
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  orangutan might be outside the country. It said it couldn't confirm the
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  animal's species, origins, or how it got to India. An investigation would
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  require checking permits and transfer records, along with scientific testing, the ministry
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  said. Milko reported from Islamabad. Associated Press journalist Edna Hatergan contributed from
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  Jakarta, Indonesia. The Associated Press's Climate and Environmental Coverage receives financial support
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  from multiple private foundations. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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  Find the AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters,
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  and funded coverage areas at the AP dot org.