Anant Ambani, the son of Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, recently offered to help Colombia by transporting its 80 hippos to his Vantara animal sanctuary in Gujarat, the BBC reported on Tuesday.
These hippos were linked to the infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was shot dead by police in 1993. Escobar illegally imported exotic animals, including a male and female hippopotamus, nicknamed “cocaine hippos”. The herbivores, native to sub-Saharan Africa, were originally imported for Escobar’s entertainment; however, the beasts and their offspring were allowed to roam free after his death.
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The hippo problem in Colombia
The country’s environment ministry recently warned that the hippo population will exceed 500 by 2030 without intervention. The population of the herbivorous animal grew and the government tried various methods to keep the population under control, including castration; however, none of these methods helped.
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The government eventually decided to euthanize nearly 80 of them later this year. This comes after fishermen move with wary precision along the Magdalena River, one of Colombia’s main arteries, where hippos can emerge without warning.
“These hippos are a real nightmare,” fisherman Wilinton Sanchez said of the semi-aquatic animals capable of charging at speeds of up to 8 kilometers per hour in water and 30 kilometers on land, the AP reported.
The decision to euthanize 80 hippos has now sparked furious debate, with scientists who advocated euthanasia facing death threats while animal welfare campaigners denounce the move as “murder”.
Meanwhile, many residents of Puerto Triunfo, a town 200 kilometers from the capital Bogota, fear the loss of the animals will destroy the tourism that sustains their community.
Anant Ambani offers a solution to Colombia’s hippo problem
According to the BBC, Anant Ambani said he was “willing to take in and care for” the animals at his private Vantara rescue centre. However, the Colombian government did not respond to the offer. In a letter to Bogota’s environment minister, Ambani said they were ready to provide “lifelong care” to the herd in India.
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The letter, which was posted on Vantara’s Instagram account, said that “at the heart of this proposal is Vantara’s belief that every life matters and that we have a shared responsibility to protect life wherever possible.”
It’s worth noting that the herbivore is not native to India, and while Ambani’s Vantara hosts bears, crocodiles, elephants, leopards and tigers, it has no public record of a hippo, let alone 80 of them.
However, Ambani insisted that his sanctuary would give the Escobar hippos the safe home they needed. “Vantara has the expertise, infrastructure and commitment to support this effort, entirely on Colombia’s terms,” his statement added.
Vantara Rescue Center Controversy
Anant Ambani’s Vantara is shrouded in controversy. Despite being home to more than 15,000 animals, including several endangered species, it faces accusations of illegal and unethical animal acquisition, The Guardian reported. The international watchdog CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) drew attention to the alleged non-compliance with the rules of trade in wild species.
In addition, critics have also accused Vantara of being indirectly complicit in wildlife trafficking, while others have criticized the sanctuary as the Ambani family’s “vanity zoo” with no access to the public.
