For five motherless orangutan infants, a zoological park is becoming a sanctuary of care, compassion and conservation
Bhubaneswar (sopana.in)
A milk bottle held gently in a keeper’s hand. A colourful toy placed beside a tiny infant. An artificial swing hanging inside an enclosure. And, perhaps most poignantly, five pairs of innocent eyes searching for someone who is no longer there.
For the five young orangutans at Nandankanan Zoological Park, childhood has taken an unexpected turn.
They were born into a world where a mother’s body was their first shelter, her presence their first lesson in survival and her heartbeat their earliest source of comfort. Today, that maternal embrace has been replaced by human care.
The keepers feed them, monitor them, comfort them and try to understand their behaviour. They provide toys and enrichment, create spaces for rest and explore ways of reducing the stress caused by maternal separation.
In doing so, Nandankanan is assuming an unusual role—not that of a replacement mother, because no human can truly replace one, but that of a Yashoda, offering care and protection to five young lives that have lost their natural maternal support.
This deeply moving story also reveals something much larger: the changing face of wildlife conservation in Odisha.
Beyond Survival: A New Understanding of Conservation
For decades, wildlife conservation was often understood primarily in terms of protecting species, preventing poaching, preserving habitats and ensuring breeding success.
Today, the definition is much broader.
Modern zoological institutions increasingly recognise that the welfare of an animal involves not only food and physical health but also behavioural stimulation, psychological well-being, environmental enrichment and opportunities to express natural instincts.
The five orangutan infants at Nandankanan represent this evolving philosophy.
Their survival requires specialised nutrition and veterinary attention. But their development requires much more. They need stimulation, comfort, interaction and an environment that responds to their behavioural needs.
That makes their care a demanding and sensitive exercise in wildlife management.
A Mother’s Absence Leaves More Than an Empty Space
For a young orangutan, the mother is the centre of early life.
Orangutans are highly intelligent animals, and young ones depend on maternal guidance for an extended period. Much of what they learn about movement, feeding, social behaviour and their surroundings comes through close association with their mothers.
Maternal separation can therefore have consequences beyond the immediate loss of nutrition.
The five infants must now adjust to an entirely different environment.
Their instinctive need for physical contact remains. Their curiosity remains. Their need for reassurance remains.
A soft toy may offer something to hold. An artificial swing may provide comfort and activity. A feeding bottle can meet a nutritional requirement.
But none of these can fully reproduce the emotional security of a mother.
That is precisely why the work of the keepers is so important.
The Keepers: Caregivers Behind the Conservation Effort
Every successful conservation programme has people working quietly behind the scenes.
At Nandankanan, keepers and animal-care teams have become an important part of the infants’ new world.
Their responsibilities extend beyond feeding. They have to observe behavioural changes, understand individual responses, maintain appropriate routines and ensure that the young animals remain physically and mentally engaged.
A frightened infant cannot simply be told that it is safe.
It has to experience safety.
That requires patience.
It requires consistency.
And it requires caregivers who can recognise subtle changes in behaviour and respond appropriately.
The milk bottle may be visible to visitors, but behind that simple act lies a larger system of animal husbandry, observation, veterinary care and welfare management.
This is the less visible side of conservation—and often the most demanding.
Could Music Become Their Lullaby?
In an innovative attempt to address the emotional and behavioural challenges associated with maternal separation, Nandankanan is also considering music therapy as a possible supportive intervention.
The objective is not to imitate the mother, but to create a calm and reassuring environment.
Soft and soothing sounds may help reduce anxiety and provide sensory enrichment. For the infants, such sounds could gradually become part of a comforting routine—a kind of unfamiliar lullaby in a world that has suddenly changed.
Whether music can meaningfully reduce stress would need to be assessed through careful observation and appropriate animal-welfare practices. But the very consideration of such an approach reflects a significant change in thinking.
It shows that wildlife care is increasingly moving from mere survival to holistic welfare.
Enrichment: Turning an Enclosure into a Living Environment
An enclosure should not simply be a physical boundary between an animal and the outside world.
For modern zoological institutions, it can also become an environment designed to encourage movement, exploration, play and natural behaviour.
For young orangutans, climbing, grasping, exploring and manipulating objects are important forms of behavioural development.
That is why toys, swings and other forms of enrichment matter.
They are not merely distractions.
They can help young animals remain active, curious and engaged with their surroundings.
In the case of the five infants, such interventions also serve another purpose: helping them adapt to a life without their mother while supporting healthy development.
A Lesson in Compassionate Conservation
The story of these five orangutans raises an important question for society:
What does it really mean to conserve wildlife?
Is it enough to keep an animal alive?
Or should conservation also mean ensuring that the animal grows in an environment where its physical, behavioural and psychological needs are respected?
The answer is increasingly pointing towards the latter.
Conservation institutions today face the responsibility of combining science with compassion.
Veterinary medicine must work alongside behavioural observation. Nutrition must be complemented by enrichment. Infrastructure must be designed around animal welfare. And trained personnel must be equipped not merely to manage animals, but to understand them.
This integrated approach is particularly important for animals that cannot immediately return to the wild and therefore depend on human institutions for their long-term welfare.
Nandankanan’s Larger Conservation Responsibility
As one of Odisha’s most recognised wildlife institutions, Nandankanan carries responsibilities that extend beyond displaying animals to visitors.
It is also a centre where conservation, education, research, animal care and public awareness intersect.
The experience of caring for the five orangutan infants can therefore contribute to a wider institutional understanding of infant care, behavioural enrichment and animal welfare.
Such experiences can strengthen protocols, build staff expertise and create knowledge that can potentially benefit future conservation and rescue efforts.
For a development-oriented Odisha, this is an important dimension of institutional progress.
Development is not measured only through roads, industries and infrastructure.
It is also reflected in how a society treats the vulnerable—whether human or animal—and how its institutions evolve to meet new responsibilities.
Five Little Lives, One Larger Message
The five orangutans may not understand why their mother is gone.
They may continue to search.
They may still reach out for the warmth of a body that is no longer there.
But around them are people who have chosen to respond to that vulnerability with care.
A bottle of milk cannot replace a mother.
A teddy bear cannot reproduce her heartbeat.
An artificial swing cannot recreate her embrace.
Yet each of these represents an effort to give the infants something essential: a chance to grow, adapt and live.
And perhaps that is where the true meaning of conservation lies.
Not simply in saving a species from extinction.
Not simply in keeping an animal alive.
But in accepting responsibility for the lives entrusted to our care—and doing everything possible to ensure that those lives are lived with dignity, security and well-being.
At Nandankanan, five little orangutans are learning to live without their mother.
And the people caring for them are learning, once again, that conservation is ultimately an act of responsibility.
For now, the zoological park has become their home.
And the keepers, in their own quiet way, have become their Yashoda.
