Zoo run by Indian billionaire's son Anant Ambani cleared of wrongdoing

Supreme Court ordered an investigation after petitions based on media reports and complaints by wildlife organisations

Anant Ambani with his wife Radhika Merchant at one of their wedding events in 2024. AFP

An investigation ordered by India's Supreme Court has dismissed allegations of wildlife violations at a sprawling private animal facility run by the son of Asia's richest man.

Vantara, which describes itself as the “world's biggest wild animal rescue centre”, is run by Anant Ambani, son of Mukesh Ambani, the billionaire head of the multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries.

The site in the western state of Gujarat is home to more than 200 elephants, as well as 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, among other animals, India's Central Zoo Authority said.

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The court last month ordered a panel led by retired judges to investigate alleged unlawful acquisition of animals as well as other violations of wildlife regulations and money laundering.

Wildlife activists have criticised the site, saying it is housing endangered species on baking flatlands next to a giant oil refinery without any plan to return them to the wild.

Some of the elephants at the Vantara reserve, a private zoo owned by Anant Amabani in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Photo: Vantara

The court said it issued the order after petitions based on media reports and complaints by wildlife organisations.

However, the probe panel report revealed that it had found the “allegations rest wholly on conjecture and surmises on secondary reporting, and activist commentary”.

“The complaints are, therefore, devoid of merit,” according to the report.

In March, the German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that Vantara imported about 39,000 animals in 2024, including from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Venezuela.

Dozens of the facility's elephants were transported there in specially adapted lorries thousands of kilometres from across India, according to the zoo.

The probe report said “each of the imports has undergone multilayered and multi-jurisdictional verification”.

Anant Ambani, left, with his father Mukesh Ambani and mother Nita Ambani at his wedding in 2024. Reuters

The court said it had “no hesitation in accepting the conclusion so drawn in the report”.

“We are more than satisfied that the facilities at Vantara in certain respects exceeds the prescribed standards,” the court said in its order.

Vantara said it welcomed the committee's findings. “The validation of the truth … is not just a relief for everyone at Vantara but also a blessing, because it allows our work to speak for itself,” it said in a statement.