Indian billionaire heir Anant Ambani offers to take in 80 ‘cocaine hippos’ that Colombia wants to cull

Indian magnate Anant Ambani, son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, has offered to take in at his wildlife sanctuary in India, 80 “cocaine hippos” currently living in Colombia, where the government is planning to cull them.

The hippos are descended from animals introduced to the country in the 1980s by Pablo Escobar, one of Colombia’s top drug lords, who sought to have one of the largest private zoos in Latin America with a wide variety of animals.

Since then, their population has exploded to around 160 individuals and their presence is now endangering native species. A few weeks ago, Colombia said it planned to cull 80 of these animals, sparking debate.

Ambani asked the Colombian government to reconsider the decision, proposing to house them at his rescue center.

“These 80 hippos did not choose where to be born, nor did they create the circumstances they now face,” he said in a social media post. These animals “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.”

In the city of Jamnagar, in the state of Gujarat, Ambani founded the conservation center Vantara, which houses more than 150,000 animals from over 2,000 wildlife species, according to its official website.

This is where he proposes to relocate 80 of the Colombian hippos, which currently live around Hacienda Nápoles, a rural estate located in Puerto Triunfo, Antioquia department, that once belonged to Escobar and is now used for tourism activities.

“We are willing to receive and care for these hippos in a specially designed and enriched environment, conceived to guarantee their well-being and, at the same time, reflect the key characteristics of their current habitat,” says a statement published Monday signed by Vantara’s CEO, Vivaan Karani, on behalf of Ambani.

In the letter, addressed to Colombia’s Minister of Environment and Sustainable Development, Irene Vélez Torres, Vantara executives make a call to “respectfully appeal” the Colombian government’s decision.

CNN contacted Vantara authorities for more details about the proposal.

If the Colombian government approves the request, it would be carried out “in strict accordance with the necessary approvals, permits, due diligence processes, biosecurity requirements, and logistical planning,” Karani explained in the statement, offering “lifetime” care for the animals under the principle of “causing no harm to any living being.”

CNN reached out to Colombia’s Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development and Minister Vélez regarding the reception of the proposal and its feasibility and is awaiting a response.

Vantara authorities said they are “fully available” to engage in dialogue with the Colombian government to analyze the initiative and expressed their intention to meet with officials from President Gustavo Petro’s administration, to whom they extended an invitation to visit the rescue center’s facilities.

Ambani, founder of Vantara and son of the chairman and CEO of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), considered the largest private corporation in India, claims to be an animal lover. “In animals I see God, and Vantara is a temple,” he says. He made international news in 2024 when he married Radhika Merchant, in a wedding preceded by lavish celebrations that lasted for months.

The measure to authorize the culling of 80 of these specimens is due to the uncontrolled growth of the invasive species in the Magdalena River basin, said Minister Vélez when announcing the decision.

“Without this action, it is impossible to control the population, and as we have already seen, estimates imply that by 2030 we would have at least 500 hippos affecting our ecosystems and native species, such as the manatee and the river turtle. It is with responsibility for our ecosystem that we must take these actions,” the official said at a press conference on April 13.

Weeks earlier, the Colombian Ministry of Environment said it was exploring alternatives such as relocating some of the animals to countries like Ecuador, Peru, the Philippines, India, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, and Chile; but these options had not progressed “due to international restrictions and operational limitations.”

The hippopotamus was included in Colombia’s list of invasive exotic species in March 2022, which later allowed the government to design measures to control the species, which lives around 40 to 50 years.