ASIA / PACIFIC
January 6, 2020
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 3
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time for family –
and extra stuff.
ORANG REPATRIATION. A Thai officer offers peanuts to Cola, a 10-year-old female orangutan, who
is seen in a cage at Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, Thailand. Wildlife authorities in Thailand repatriated two
orangutans, Cola and seven-year-old Giant, to their native habitats in Indonesia in a collaborative effort to combat
the illicit wildlife trade. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)
Thailand returns orangutans to
their Indonesian homeland
By Busaba Sivasomboon
The Associated Press
ANGKOK — Wildlife authorities
in Thailand sent two orangutans
back to Indonesia as part of a
collaborative effort to combat illicit
wildlife trade.
Ten-year-old female Cola and seven-
year-old male Giant were transported
from wildlife sanctuaries in the western
province of Ratchaburi to Bangkok’s
Suvarnabhumi Airport, where they were
put on a plane to Jakarta.
Giant was smuggled into Thailand in
2014, while Cola was born in a breeding
center to two smuggled orangutans which
were sent back to Indonesia several years
ago, according to Thailand’s Department
of National Park, Wildlife, and Plant
Conservation. Police found Giant when
they stopped and searched a bus heading
from the southern border area to Bangkok,
it said.
Sixty-seven orangutans have been sent
back to Indonesia in three previous
batches, and more are expected to go back
this year, the agency said.
The Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species — CITES —
prohibits
international
trade
in
orangutans. They are found only in the
forests of Sumatra and Borneo but their
habitat is shrinking due to the growth of
agricultural land use, making them more
vulnerable to poaching. The International
Union for Conservation of Nature, the
global authority on the status of the
natural world, lists orangutans as
critically endangered.
Orangutans are often sold into the pet
trade and for display in zoos and other
attractions.
“The return of these orangutans will
send a very strong message to the
criminals responsible for the smuggling of
animals across countries that both
B
Summer Run
governments
will
act
decisively,”
Indonesian diplomat Dicky Komar said at
the handover ceremony at the airport.
Cola will be sent to a wildlife
rehabilitation center in East Kalimantan,
while Giant will stay in an animal nursery
center in Sumatra. Giant has to spend the
rest of his life in a nursery due to having
had his hands amputated, making it hard
for him to fend for himself. Veterinarians
carried out the operation to save his life
after he was bitten by some fierce
monkeys. Officials say chances are good
that Cola can be returned to the wild.
q
Pakistan study blames
HIV outbreak in kids
on bad healthcare
Continued from page 2
mitted to children as a result of healthcare
providers using contaminated needles and
blood products,” said the statement.
“Pakistan has experienced a series of
HIV outbreaks over the past two decades,
but we’ve never before seen this many
young children infected or so many health
facilities involved,” said Dr Fatima Mir
from The Aga Khan University in Karachi,
the Sindh provincial capital, one of the
authors of the study quoted in the
statement.
About 70% of Pakistan’s 220 million
people use the private healthcare sector,
which is mostly unregulated and rarely
monitored for cleanliness and safety.
Among many Pakistanis, popular belief
holds that intravenous or intramuscular
injections are more effective than medicine
taken by mouth, which has increased the
use of syringes across the country — and
the likelihood of dirty needles being used.
In the immediate aftermath of the HIV
outbreak in Ratodero, the government did
act quickly, closing three blood banks as
well as 300 clinics run by untrained
medical staff, the statement said.
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