It would certainly be a good opportunity to demonstrate how managed conservation works to the benefit of all concerned, provided Mr. Rootball Express leaves some for everyone else.
Other advantages would be an expected premium for shooting one of Señor Escobar's hippos over an African one, as well as giving Americans something to shoot at other than their president.
From today's '
The Daily Telegraph':
Billionaire’s son offers to save Escobar’s hippos from execution
Scion of Asia’s richest man urges Colombia to relocate 80 feral animals to India
Colombian officials authorised the plan to kill dozens of the hippos earlier this month Credit: Fernando Vergara/AP
An Indian billionaire’s son has offered to provide a new home for the feral hippos introduced to Colombia by Pablo Escobar, the late drug lord.
Anant Ambani, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, has told the Colombian government to reverse its decision to cull 80 of
the animals that have been wreaking havoc on rivers in the country.
“These 80 hippos did not choose where they were born, nor did they create the circumstances they now face,” Mr Ambani said.
Anant Ambani, who controls a 3,000-acre zoo in Gujarat, with his wife Credit: SUJIT JAISWAL/AFP via Getty Images
Colombian officials authorised the plan to
kill dozens of the invasive species earlier this month, saying that the government had exhausted
all other optionsto control their numbers.
Colombia is the only country outside Africa with a hippo population living wild, after Escobar, the founder of the Medellín cartel, imported four of the large mammals for a private zoo on his ranch.
After his death in 1993 at 44, the animals made a new life on river banks,
procreating quickly. They have attacked fishermen and displaced native species.
Pablo Escobar, the founder of the Medellín cartel, imported four hippos for a private zoo on his ranch Credit: Eric VANDEVILLE/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
The hippos are estimated to number close to 200 and have been seen as far as 60 miles north of Escobar’s former ranch in the Magdalena River valley.
Rather than euthanise the hippos, Mr Ambani has asked the Colombian government to allow their “safe, scientifically led translocation” to his Vantara animal centre.
Mr Ambani, the son of Mukesh Ambani, the tycoon who heads the multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries, controls the vast 3,000-acre zoo in India’s western state of Gujarat.
It is billed as “one of the world’s largest wildlife rescue, care and conservation centres”. It houses more than 150,000 rescued animals, including hundreds of elephants, 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles.
Susana Muhamad, Colombia’s environment minister, at a press conference announcing plans to euthanise some of Escobar’s hippos Credit: JUAN BARRETO/AFP via Getty Images
Last year,
an investigation was launched into allegations that Vantara illegally imported animals and abused endangered species in its care.
Animal rights groups have long sounded the alarm over its large-scale animal intake, arguing that it acts as a private zoo and that the sanctuary has no clear strategy to release them into the wild.
The Ambani family strongly denied the allegations. India’s supreme court found Vantara had not violated any legal or ethical standards.
Süddeutsche Zeitung, the German newspaper, reported that Vantara imported close to 40,000 animals in 2024, including from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela.
The animal centre lies alongside the scorched plains of the Reliance Jamnagar refinery complex, which the conglomerate says is the world’s largest crude oil refinery.
Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, at the Vantara centre Credit: Anadolu via Getty Images
Summers there can get very hot, with temperatures reaching above 40C.
“Vantara has the expertise, infrastructure and resolve to support this effort, entirely on
Colombia’s terms,” Mr Ambani insisted in his statement.
“They are living, sentient beings, and if we have the ability to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have a responsibility to try.”
Vantara has been contacted for comment.
