Vantara curbs animal imports, cuts risk for Reliance succession: Bloomberg
New Delhi / Jamnagar — Vantara, the animal rescue and rehabilitation centre in Gujarat's Jamnagar backed by Reliance Industries' youngest scion Anant Ambani, has committed to sharply restricting how it acquires animals — a move that a Bloomberg Opinion column says removes a significant complication from Mukesh Ambani's succession planning.
According to the column, written by Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andy Mukherjee, Vantara sent a 38-page communication last week to India's CITES management authority under the environment ministry, pledging that it does not wish to become "however unwittingly, a driver of illegal trade" in wildlife. Bloomberg reports that all future acquisitions will be routed through a three-stage screening process, and that no great apes, big cats or species facing extinction will be brought in from their natural habitats.
Bloomberg notes that the 3,500-acre facility — showcased to global guests during the pre-wedding celebrations for Anant Ambani in 2024 and later visited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi — has drawn sustained criticism from conservationists and faced litigation from non-government organisations over its sourcing of exotic species. A German newspaper report last year described it as the world's largest zoo and questioned the origin of several animals; the foundation that runs Vantara rejected those allegations, according to the column.
India's Supreme Court cleared Vantara on wildlife, customs and anti-money-laundering compliance in September 2025, Bloomberg says. A subsequent petition seeking to block imports of CITES-listed species was not entertained, though the court flagged that even lawful removal of animals from the wild could raise questions of cruelty.
The Bloomberg column argues that the shift matters commercially. With Anant Ambani appointed an executive director of Reliance Industries in April 2025 and positioned to oversee the oils-to-chemicals and new energy businesses, reputational exposure around Vantara had become harder for the group to ignore — particularly with Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail preparing for public listings and global partners including Meta, Alphabet, KKR, Silver Lake, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and BP invested in the group.
Bloomberg adds that Anant Ambani's focus is expected to move toward conserving animals in their own habitats, including a proposal to build a sanctuary in Colombia for the hippopotamus population descended from animals once kept by Pablo Escobar.