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NEW DELHI, Jan 22 — A jumbo operation is moving 20 elephants across the breadth of India to the mammoth private zoo set up by the son of Asia’s richest man, adjoining a sprawling oil refinery.
The elephants have been “freed from the exploitative logging industry”, according to the Vantara Animal Rescue Centre, run by Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of Reliance Industries Mukesh Ambani, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The sheer scale of the self-declared “world’s biggest wild animal rescue centre” has raised eyebrows — including more than 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, according to the inventory from India’s Central Zoo Authority.
The elephants are being transported the entire width of India, around 3,200 kilometres by road, from the misty forests of the north-east Himalayan state of Arunachal Pradesh to Jamnagar on the baking flatlands of Gujarat in the west.
It is a staggering journey, about the distance from Paris to Cairo, even for a zoo that has flown in animals from across the world.
The elephants include captive-born animals, some that had with deep wounds from chains used by their handlers to control them and for dragging timber.
They are being transported in “elephant ambulances” — specially adapted trucks — accompanied by a team of over 200 staff, including vets.
Photographs taken on their journey published by local media show the waving trunks of the elephants out the top of the slow-moving trucks.
The animals will eventually be housed alongside around 200 elephants already at the pet project of 29-year-old Anant, a vast operation that includes more than 2,000 animals from 43 species across a 1,214-hectare site.
‘Significant mental suffering’
“They will live chain-free and will never be forced into labour”, a statement from Vantara read, meaning “Star of the Forest” in Hindi.
Those are homed in a site alongside the Reliance Jamnagar Refinery Complex, which the conglomerate also says is the world’s largest crude oil refinery. Summer temperatures there can soar above 50°Celsius.
Indian social media has both posts praising the move — and those concerned that the endangered animals will be held in a private facility and not returned to the wild.
Two other elephants, from a Hindu temple complex in Mayapur in West Bengal state where they performed temple rituals, are also being brought to the zoo on a 2,300-kilometre journey.
One of those elephants killed her keeper last year. Vantara said that “living in captivity causes significant mental suffering”, and insisted that their facility will now support the elephants’ “emotional recovery”.
Around 2,100 staff look after the animals at the zoo, according to Vantara.
The zoo was also among the many venues for Anant’s lavish muti-day wedding celebrations in 2024, parties that set a new benchmark in matrimonial extravagance — including private performances by R&B star Rihanna, Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, The Backstreet Boys and Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli.
Anant’s father Mukesh is chairman of Reliance Industries, a family-founded conglomerate that has grown into India’s biggest company by market cap.
Mukesh Ambani, who attended US President Donald Trump’s inauguration this week, is the world’s 18th richest person, with a fortune of more than US$95 billion, according to Forbes. — AFP