Nandankanan Loses India’s Only Orangutan

Bhubaneswar: Binny, an inmate of Nandankanan Zoological Park here and India’s lone orangutan, is no more.

She had been suffering from a wound infection in her throat since long and was being treated by the experts from College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry OUAT under constant advice of Orangutan experts from UK and Singapore for more than a year now.

The 41-year-old died at 9.40 pm on Wednesday, zoo sources said, adding that the cause of her death would be known only after the postmortem on Thursday.

The normal life span of an orangutan is around 40.

Notably, Binny was brought to Nandankanan from Pune’s Rajiv Gandhi Zoological Park on November 20, 2003, when she was only 25 years old. She was earlier brought to India from Singapore.

Earlier, animal lovers had raised concern over her deteriorating health condition and the treatment being extended to her by the zoo authorities.

Dr Sarat Kumar Sahu, Veterinary Assistant Surgeon of the zoo, had told Odisha Bytes that Binny was suffering from multiple ailments. “She has a wound in her throat pouch. With age, the throat pouch of an Orangutan grows. It worsens when she scratches it,” he had said.

Since she was old, they did not go for aggressive treatment as it could have then put her life at risk. The zoo authorities were also against putting her up for visitor’ display but since her skin needed sunlight to heal she was being let out in the open, he had further said.