Indian strongman Ananth Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has offered to adopt 80 “cocaine hippos” currently living in Colombia from an Indian wildlife sanctuary where the government plans to kill them.
Hippos are descendants of animals brought to Colombia in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s top drug lords. Escobar aimed to build one of the largest private zoos in Latin America, with a wide variety of animals.
Since then, their population has exploded to about 160 individuals, and their presence now puts the native species at risk of extinction. A few weeks ago, Colombia sparked controversy by announcing that it planned to kill 80 of these animals.
Mr Ambani called on the Colombian government to reconsider its decision and suggested housing them in his own rescue centre.
“These 80 hippos did not choose where they were born, nor did they create the situation they are now facing,” he said in a social media post. These animals are “living, sentient beings, and if we have the ability to save them with safe and humane solutions, we have a responsibility to try to do so.”
Ambani established the Vantara Conservation Center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, which houses over 150,000 animals representing over 2,000 species, according to his official website.
Here, he proposes relocating 80 Colombian hippos currently living around Hacienda Napoles, a rural area in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia department. This hippo was once Escobar’s property and is now used for tourist activities.
“We stand ready to host and care for the hippos in a specially designed enriched environment that ensures their health while also reflecting important features of their current habitat,” said a statement released Monday, signed on behalf of Ambani by Vantara CEO Vivan Kalani.
In a letter to Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Irene Vélez Torres, Vantara executives call on her to “respectfully appeal” the Colombian government’s decision.
CNN has contacted Vantara officials for more details on the proposal.
If the Colombian government approves the request, it will be carried out “in strict accordance with the necessary approvals, permits, due diligence processes, biosecurity requirements and logistics plans” and will provide “lifelong” care for the animals based on the principle of “no harm to any living being,” Kalani said in a statement.
CNN has contacted Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and Minister Vélez regarding receipt and feasibility of the proposal and is awaiting a response.
Vantara authorities said they were “fully prepared” to engage in dialogue with the Colombian government to analyze the effort, expressed their intention to meet with officials from President Gustavo Petro’s administration and invited them to visit the rescue center’s facilities.
Ambani, the founder of Vantara and the son of the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), considered India’s largest private company, claims to be an animal lover. “I find God in animals. Vantara is a temple,” he says. He married Radhika Merchant in 2024, and the wedding was preceded by months of lavish celebrations that made international news.
The measure allowing the culling of 80 of these specimens is due to the uncontrolled proliferation of alien species in the Magdalena River basin, Minister Vélez said when announcing the decision.
“Without this measure, it will be impossible to control the population, and as we have already seen, estimates suggest that by 2030 at least 500 hippos will be impacting our ecosystem and native species such as manatees and river turtles. It is our ecological responsibility that we have to take these measures,” officials said at a press conference on April 13.
A few weeks ago, Colombia’s Ministry of the Environment announced that it was considering alternatives, including relocating some animals to countries such as Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, India, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, South Africa and Chile. However, these options were not pursued “due to international regulatory and operational limitations.”
Hippos were included in Colombia’s list of invasive alien species in March 2022, allowing the government to take steps to manage the species, which has a lifespan of around 40 to 50 years.
