India returns seized orangutan to Indonesia

Indian authorities returned a juvenile orangutan to Indonesia after seizing the animal from an apartment in Mumbai in 2024.

The animal arrived at the Sumatra Rescue Alliance facility on the island of Sumatra. Experts from the Yayasan Orangutan Sumatera Lestari. Orangutan Information Centre manage the facility and plan to prepare the orangutan for a release into the wild. After a quarantine period, the juvenile will attend a forest school to learn survival skills.

Sinan Serhadli, a conservation scientist, said the animal could be released in about four years if plans proceed as expected. This relocation marks the first successful repatriation of a seized CITES animal from India. Yogesh Nilkand Warkad of the CITES management authority in Mumbai stated that his office worked to complete the process following two years of health and procedural delays.

The move has increased international attention on five infant orangutans that authorities rescued from Odisha state in India in September. Those five infants, which are between 1 and 1.5 years old, currently stay at Nandankanan Zoological Park in Bhubaneswar. Indonesian officials plan to send a seven-member delegation to assess the health and origins of the infants. Ahmad Munawir of the Indonesian Ministry of Forestry said initial observations suggest the infants are Sumatran orangutans, but genetic testing is needed for confirmation.

Panut Hadisiswoyo, founder of the Orangutan Information Centre, said both countries should use this success to dismantle cross-border smuggling operations.