By Suresh Unnithan
The colorful visuals of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vantara sojourn are simply mind boggling. Millions of Modi fans across the globe watched the video of the prime minister cuddling the lion cubs, feeding a rhino and shooting the wildlife with his sophisticated photo-shoot equipment. Modi was seen capturing in his camera the rare wildlife wandering in the Multi-billionaire Ambani owned Vantara- an animal rescue and rehabilitation centre. The Prime Minister had officially inaugurated the Vantara located in Jamnagar, Gujarat on March 4 this year and spent over seven hours, taken out from his hectic schedule, to roam around Vantara, spanning over 3,000 acres within the Reliance Jamnagar refinery complex. Vantara, as per its owner (Mukersh Ambani’s younger son Anant) is a state-of-the-art sanctuary dedicated to the rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation of endangered and captive wildlife.
According to reports the facility provides world-class veterinary care, offering a safe haven for animals rescued from abuse, illegal captivity, and life-threatening conditions. “Vantara is home to over 2,000 animals from 43 species.”
Everything was hunky-dory till The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) raised concern on “the large amount of different live species of wild animals” to an Indian destination.
Megan Carr, WAPFSA Administrator (email: [email protected] , mobile: +27832511978) in his letter (Thursday 6th March 2025) to Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Dion George has said “The Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) is aware that legitimate concerns have been raised within CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) regarding the large amount of different live species of wild animals that are being imported to the Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre (GZZRC), also known as Vantara, in India. A case for India’s potential non-compliance was raised as early as the 77th Meeting of the CITES Standing Committee (SC77) in November 2023. The Secretariat has received information related to live animal imports into India, including specimens of critically endangered species.”
Requesting the Minister to urgently investigate the matter, Megan Carr writes “on 28 July 2023, the GZRRC visited the CITES Secretariat. Their representatives explained that, in recent years, GZRRC has rescued animals in difficult conditions outside India and imported them to India from various countries. Despite this explanation concerns have been expressed about the legality of those transactions and the methods used to obtain CITES documents. The attached document highlights the concerning high number of leopards, cheetah, tigers and lions exported to GZZRC from South Africa. Furthermore, we are of the opinion that a significant number of captive-bred specimens in facilities in South Africa could have been and are being traded for commercial purposes.”
In an article titled “NEITHER RESCUE OR CONSERVATION: THE ACCUMULATION OF INDIA’S VANTARA’S WILD ANIMAL COLLECTION SOURCED FROM SOUTH AFRICA” appeared in https://wapfsa.org, the official website of WAPFSA it is alleged that 60 Tigers have reached Vantara “But The World’s Largest Exporter of Tigers Has No Registered Tiger Breeding Facilities.”
The article further elaborates “the keeping and breeding of exotic cats in South Africa is lawful in most provinces but in most cases will require a permit from a provincial conservation department or agency either under The keeping and breeding of exotic cats in South Africa is lawful in most provinces but in most cases will require a permit from a provincial conservation department or agency either under National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, 10 of 2004 (NEM:BA) or the relevant provincial conservation legislation, and also in some cases from the relevant municipality. Structures used to house such animals must usually be approved by the permitting authority. A permit under the CITES regulations is necessary for the export or import of any animals on the appendices. A non-detriment finding must precede the issue of the permit.
On the South African side, the export of 40 tigers to GZRRC in May 2024 was confirmed through a
response to a PAIA request, the article has said. To authenticate its claim the article has quoted a facebook post and said that on the 23rd August 2024 published on the Vantara’s official Facebook social media platform “in the landscape of South Africa, confined to barren cages and subjected to relentless cruelty, six majestic tigers faced the horrors of canned hunting, the tiger bone trade, and cub petting. Their existence was marked by confinement and cruelty, stripping them of freedom and captivity”. But the article has further added that it was not clear “whether these tigers in the video are part of the shipment of 40 tigers or another shipment.”
Saying that Moving South African Cheetah to India: was Neither Ecologically Sustainable Nor Ethical the article continues “On the 16th February 2023 environmental lawyers, Cullinan and Associates, acting on behalf of the EMS Foundation sent an urgent communication to the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy raising concerns about the proposed project to remove one hundred and twenty wild cheetah over a ten year period from South Africa and export them to India. The first twelve cheetahs departed from South Africa on the 17th February 2023.
On the 26th April 2023, the Democratic Alliance submitted questions to the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment, Barbara Creecy, on the export of 12 cheetahs to India. One of the cheetahs from South Africa died within a month. The cheetahs were exported, despite widespread apprehension including the fact that the 2021 non-detrimental findings pertaining to the cheetah had not been adopted.”
According to the Democratic Alliance, the article says, DFFE exported the twelve cheetahs to India without the adoption of a formalised non-detrimental finding that has gone through public consultation.
However, Vantara is hotly debated in India and abroad. The question sounded aloud is if the Ambanis have violated any wild norms in importing
The article says “Currently there are legitimate concerns within CITES regarding the large amounts of different species of wild animals that are being imported to GZZRC and potential non-compliance issues.”
“GZRRC was, according to their own documents, founded with the vision to conserve biodiversity while strengthening ex-situ and in-situ linkages and promote animal welfare by creating awareness among the masses. The lions and tigers exported from South Africa appear to have been purchased and exported from breeding facilities in South Africa….”
Quoting wildlife experts the article concludes “placing animals in any captive environment is itself a form of mistreatment. A life in captivity in a zoo, no matter how advanced the zoo facilities may be, can never equal a life lived in natural surroundings. Captivity enforces conditions upon wild animals in which they are not adapted to thrive. WAPFSA requires independent scientific proof that the welfare and wellbeing of each of these animals is not compromised.”
However, Vantara is hotly debated in India and abroad alike. The question asked aloud is if the Ambanis have dodged any wildlife norm, national or international, to establish this private wild animal “rescue shelter” in a non-forest area, close to an industrial establishment prone to pollution!
Wildlife Protection Act (WPA) of 1972, India’s cornerstone legislation for wildlife conservation, stipulates strict protections for species listed under its schedules, particularly Schedules I and II, which include endangered animals like elephants, leopards, and tigers. The Act prohibits private ownership of such wildlife, restricts their capture from the wild, and regulates their transport and trade, with severe penalties for violations.
The apprehensions raised by Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA) have to be read in this context. It has questioned the legality of exporting leopards, cheetahs, tigers, and lions from South Africa to Vantara, citing concerns over commercial trade and the suitability of Gujarat’s hot climate for these species. Vantara’s rapid accumulation of animal-over 3,889 in four years -has further fueled speculation on whether all these listed species were genuinely rescued or if some were sourced through loopholes or weakened enforcement.
Though the animal activists within India and abroad are contesting the legality of shifting of wild animals to a private facility, Vantara, located near an industrial refinery area no conclusive evidence of WPA violations has been upheld in any court of law in the country as of now.
