Billionaire Ambani’s Son Wants To Save Pablo Escobar’s ‘Cocaine Hippos’

Topline

The wildlife rescuer son of billionaire Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, is publicly pleading with the Colombian government to let his organization take ownership of 80 wild hippopotamuses marked for death decades after drug lord Pablo Escobar first introduced the species to the country.

Hippos, descended from a small herd introduced by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, near the Hacienda Napoles theme park on April 19, 2023.

AFP via Getty Images

Key Facts

Anant Ambani, who founded the Vantara wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and conservation center in India’s western state of Gujarat, on Tuesday asked the Colombian government to reconsider its plan to kill 80 of the animals in efforts to control their population.

The number of hippos, an invasive species not native to Colombia, is nearing 200 and some of the animals have attacked fishermen and are destroying parts of the Magdalena River, the government said.

Officials authorized the plan to kill dozens of the so-called “cocaine hippos” earlier this month after saying they’d exhausted all other options to manage the population, including sterilization programs, experimental contraceptives and relocation efforts, to no avail.

But Vantara says it wants to take over care of the hippos and says it has the “veterinary expertise, appropriate infrastructure, husbandry systems and welfare protocols” to do it.

Ambani said in a statement that the hippos “did not choose where they were born,” adding, “if we have the ability to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have a responsibility to try.”

Public statements released by Ambani and Vantara did not specify exactly how the hippos—which can each weigh up to 4.5 tons, or 9,000 pounds—would be transported to a wildlife center on the other side of the world, but Ambani has reportedly submitted a proposal to the Colombian government that outlines a veterinary-led capture and transport.

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Crucial Quote

“If we don’t do this we will not be able to control the population,” Colombian Environment Minister Irene Velez of the planned culling. “We have to take this action to preserve our ecosystems.”

Key Background

Pablo Escobar, the founder of the Medellín cartel, famously imported four hippos—as well as giraffes and zebras, among other animals—to a private zoo on the grounds of his former ranch in the Magdalena River valley in 1980. After his death more than a decade later, his hippos were left to go feral on his private estate but quickly migrated beyond the confines of the estate to the banks of the Magdalena River, multiplying all the while. A three ton hippo consumes about 40 kilograms (nearly 100 pounds) of grass and plants every day, according to the Times of London, impacting both the ecology of Colombia’s most culturally and economically important river and crowding out native species. Government officials have had to issue warnings to people in the area, calling them “highly dangerous and territorial,” and interactions with humans have reportedly ended in several maulings, though no deaths have been reported in Colombia (by comparison, hippos kill hundreds of humans per year on their native continent of Africa). Taking the “cocaine hippos” back to Africa has been deemed an unfeasible option because they come from a limited gene pool and may carry nonnative diseases, and the population has swelled despite attempts to curb their reproduction. There was a $3.5 million plan to relocate 70 hippos to India and Mexico in 2023, but it never came to fruition.

Hippos are seen swimming close to the Magdalena River in Doradal, Colombia on March 29, 2022.

Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Chief Critics

Animal rights groups have raised red flags about Vantara, alleging it amounts to no more than a private zoo and claiming it has illegally imported animals and abused animals from endangered species in its care. The Ambani family has vehemently denied the allegations and, after an investigation last year, India’s Supreme Court found it had not violated any laws or ethical standards. Vantara is reportedly home to hundreds of elephants, 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards, 900 crocodiles and other animals. The German newspaper Suddeutsche Zeitung reported that Vantara imported roughly 39,000 animals in 2024.

Forbes Valuation

Mukesh Ambani is the 20th- richest man in the world, with an estimated net worth of $95.9 billion. He transformed his father’s textile/petrochemical company, Reliance Industries, into a massive conglomerate that today also has interests in oil and gas, telecom, retail, media and financial services. He has three children, twins Akash and Isha and, born four years later, Anant.