Anant Ambani has offered to save the 80 “cocaine hippos” that the Colombian government wants to cull. The younger son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday asked the Colombian government to reconsider its plan to kill the animals, offering to have them rehabilitated at Vantara.
Vantara is a wildlife rescue, treatment, and rehabilitation centre spread over 3,500 acres in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Established by the Reliance Foundation, it is believed to be the passion project of Anant Ambani.
Anant Ambani’s statement
“These 80 hippos did not choose where to be born, nor did they create the circumstances they now face,” Anant Ambani said in a social media post on Tuesday. “They are living, sentient beings, and if we have the capacity to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have the responsibility to try.”
Ambani’s plan is to relocate the hippos to Vantara. He has asked to allow the "safe, scientifically-led translocation that would bring the 80 animals to a permanent home" at his Vantara animal centre.
{{/usCountry}}Ambani’s plan is to relocate the hippos to Vantara. He has asked to allow the "safe, scientifically-led translocation that would bring the 80 animals to a permanent home" at his Vantara animal centre.
{{/usCountry}}Ambani said he has already submitted a detailed plan to give the animals a new home at Vantara.
Vantara offers to care for ‘cocaine hippos’
In a letter to the Colombian government on behalf of Anant Ambani, Vantara CEO Vivaan Karani said that the facility is “willing to receive and care for these hippopotamuses in a specially curated, enriched environment designed to support their welfare while reflecting key features of their current habitat.”
Vantara said it is guided by the Indian principle that every life matters. “This proposal reflects our effort to offer a humane alternative rooted in coexistence, care, and respect for all living beings,” the letter said.
Vantara has offered Colombian authorities a comprehensive proposal comprising veterinary leadership, capture and transport expertise, biosecurity protocols, a purpose-designed naturalistic setting in Gujarat developed to mirror critical features of the hippos' current environment, and lifelong care for all 80 individuals.
What are the cocaine hippos?
The ‘cocaine hippos’, as they have now come to be called, are descendants of the animals that drug lord Pablo Escobar brought to Colombia in the 1980s. Escobar had wanted to have one of the largest private zoos in Latin America.
After his death in 1993, the hippos were allowed to wander his unattended estate. They eventually broke out of the estate and were left to roam the outside area, and their population soon exploded. Currently, there are an estimated 200 hippos in Colombia.
The hippo is an invasive species not native to Colombia. The Colombian government says that some animals are destroying parts of the Magdalena River and also attacking fishermen. Their existence also poses a threat to the region’s native flor and fauna.
Due to these reasons, the Colombian government has approved the euthanasia of the more than 80 hippos, which Ambani now wants to stop.