Bhubaneswar, Sept. 11 -- Odisha Crime Branch's Special Task Force (STF) has detained three persons from a hotel in West Bengal's Digha in connection with the recovery of five orangutans in Balasore district and registered a case, officials said on Friday.

Five orangutans, a critically endangered species native to the Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests, were found in a forested area in Ranakotha Badapahi in coastal Odisha's Balasore. Orangutans are smuggled for high-end exotic pet trade, tourism entertainment, and private animal collections. An orangutan could fetch around Rs.25 lakh.

Surveillance footage from more than 50 cameras along the Digha-Chandaneswar-Bhograi route showed suspicious movement of a black SUV near the suspected dr...