How Did a Gorilla Get From Haiti to a Conservation Park Owned by an Indian Billionaire?

The world’s top wildlife watchdog has recommended that India temporarily halt the import of endangered species after discovering irregularities in the acquisition of thousands of animals for a massive conservation facility, which is owned by one of the country’s richest families.

A report prepared by the secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) documented shortcomings in the oversight of animals imported to the Vantara refuge run by Anant Ambani, the son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani.

Branded as a world-class rescue and rehabilitation center, the sprawling Vantara complex is located at the site of a refinery owned by the Ambani family’s Reliance Industries in the western state of Gujarat. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the facility in March, celebrating it for “promoting ecological sustainability and wildlife welfare.”

Vantara is home to a staggering total of nearly 48,000 animals — roughly four times the number at the San Diego Zoo. Over 10,000 animals have been imported into the center, and more than 2,000 of those are endangered, according to CITES. 

The CITES report found that a number of wildlife imports since 2021 contained irregularities that “should have triggered additional due diligence from India.” The report — which will be submitted at the CITES meeting in Uzbekistan this month — recommended measures to mitigate the risk of the Vantara complex becoming “a driver of demand for illegally sourced animals.”

The authors of the report advised that “India not issue any further import permits” on certain species of animals until it has “provided evidence to the satisfaction of the Secretariat that these recommendations have been implemented."

Vantara did not respond to an emailed request for comment. 

Investigative reporting by the regional magazine Himal Southasian last year raised questions about how Vantara had managed to rapidly stock its menagerie, which includes endangered animals not found anywhere on the Indian subcontinent.

India’s Supreme Court ordered a brief probe into allegations raised by Himal and other media, and last month ruled that “there had been no violation of law in the running of Vantara,” the Times of India reported. 

The ruling — which also allowed Vantara to take action against the media, including demanding they delete articles on the subject — was widely criticised. Writing in Frontline magazine, for example, investigative journalist Saurav Das noted that the 18-day probe was done in “extraordinary haste.” 

During the CITES probe, Vantara “representatives expressly stated that no animals have been bought.”

However, CITES found that “a number of animals come from established breeding facilities, which would normally sell the animals they breed.” 

Among the evidence pointing toward potential sales were invoices that Czech authorities believed showed “no doubts that the animals imported from Czechia had been sold to [Vantara] and were not exported for the purpose of rescue.” 

Indian officials told CITES that such an invoice does not signify a purchase, but instead “merely indicates the cost of insurance and freight as is required to be described for any import.”

CITES officials were not satisfied with that explanation and stated in the report that the invoices “seem to contradict the claim that these exports involved only expenses.”

Also raising concern for CITES were numerous transfers of animals via third country “transit hubs” to India. 

These included hundreds of tortoises and iguanas sent by a commercial breeder in Germany to the West African country of Togo, and then on to India. Also flagged were transfers of apes and big cats via the United Arab Emirates. 

Some animals originated in countries where they do not live in the wild, and where there are no known breeding programs. Those included a gorilla from Haiti, four cheetahs from Syria, and a bonobo — a primate similar to a chimpanzee — which was sent from Iraq.

“Iraq is not a bonobo range State and is not known for breeding the species,” the CITES report stated. “It is therefore uncertain how it was determined that the specimen met the definition of ‘bred in captivity.’”