It sounds almost whimsical — five baby orangutans, smuggled thousands of kilometres from Indonesia and Malaysia, being calmed with sitar and tabla inside a quarantine cell in Bhubaneswar’s Nandankanan Zoo. But behind the soulful playlist lies a grim global crime and a tender truth about trauma.
The five, barely a year old, were rescued from Balasore. DNA tests to pinpoint their exact origin have been delayed by 10 days because, as Deputy Director Pradeep Devidas Mirase puts it, they are yet to “fully stabilise emotionally.” Orphaned, separated from mothers in infancy — orangutans stay with mothers for 8-9 years — they cling to each other one moment, curl up with soft toys the next. Experts prescribed music therapy. It is not exotic, it is clinical. Primates express distress like human children.
The larger story is the trafficking route. Odisha forest officials suspect a sea route into India via Myanmar or Bangladesh and the Northeast — a new corridor for wildlife crime. Orangutans are not native to India. Their presence here means organised networks that move endangered species like contraband. The Wildlife Crime Control Bureau’s probe will need to answer how Balasore, a coastal district known for missile tests, became a landing point for Southeast Asian apes.
Nandankanan playing ragas is both compassionate conservation and an indictment. We are good at rescue, poor at prevention. That these babies need Indian classical music to feel safe in a zoo, because humans made their jungle unsafe, is a commentary on our age. They were meant to learn forest sounds. Instead, they are learning Yaman.