Zoos: Vaults & Velvet Chains

The World Wildlife Crime Report (2024) reveals that the global scope and overall scale of wildlife trafficking remain substantial. Seizures document illegal trade in 162 countries and territories during 2015–2021, affecting around 4,000 plant and animal species, approximately 3,250 of them listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices. As a crude depiction of scale, these seizures involved 13 million items reported by number and over 16,000 tons reported by weight during these seven years. This illegal trade flows into a wide range of end use sectors, including food, medicine, live animal and plant keeping, and “luxury” goods. Actual wildlife trafficking levels are of course far greater than the recorded seizures. The report also flags that wildlife crime is interconnected with the activities of large and powerful organised crime groups operating in some of the most fragile and diverse ecosystems — from the Amazon to the Golden Triangle of SouthEast Asia. Addressing wildlife trafficking in these circumstances requires a broader strategy to address organised crime as a whole.

In an alarming development, a Kolkata-based NGO, Swazon, moved the High Court on July 1, 2025, alleging that 321 animals had gone “missing” from the Alipore Zoological Garden in Kolkata—one of India’s oldest zoos. The NGO claimed that according to the ‘Annual Inventory of Animals in Zoos’ report, compiled every year by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), the animals had gone missing between the last day of fiscal 2023-24 and the first day of fiscal 2024-25. Earlier, in a similar incident, a notice issued in July 2019 by the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC), said there were a total of 917 animals and birds of different species missing from Islamabad zoo. For decades, many zoos acquired species mainly for the purpose of entertainment, without much concern about wildlife trade’s potential impact, reports National Geographic.

Global Wildlife Trade

The global wildlife trade has acquired an enormous market now, and over the last 22 years (2000-2022), people in the US legally imported nearly 2.85 billion individual animals representing almost 30,000 species. Some of these wild animals become pets, such as reptiles, spiders, clownfish, chimpanzees and even tigers. Thousands end up in zoos and aquariums, where many species on display come directly from the wild. Medical research uses macaque monkeys and imports up to 39,000 of them every year. The fashion trade imports around 1 million to 2 million crocodile skins every year. Hunting trophies are also included in wildlife. The largest number of imported species are birds – 4,985 differentspecies are imported each year, led by Muscovy ducks, with over 6 million imported. Reptiles are next, with 3,048 species, led by iguanas and royal pythons. These largely become pets.

South Africa plays a significant role in the global wildlife trade. It is a source and destination for live animals and animal parts. It is the largest exporter of species listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora in Africa. Over 3.1 million live wild animals were legally exported for commercial purposes between 2014 and 2024. The list includes reptiles, mammals and birds. It is also one of the leading countries for trophy hunting. The industry in South Africa is estimated to be worth USD 176.1 million per year. More than 140,000 wild and captive bred animals were killed by foreign hunters in South Africa between 2018 and 2022. Asia, the US and Europe are the major export markets.

Wildlife Farming

Currently wildlife farming has become a major source of supply of wild animals. Commercial captive breeding or “wildlife farming” contributes significantly to the trade. To meet the growing demand for the commercial trade of wildlife and wildlife-derived products, wild animals are captured from wild populations or farmed. ‘Wildlife farming’ refers to commercial captive breeding or ranching wild animals in captivity with the intent to generate financial profit. At least 344 captive bred species were exported from South Africa for commercial purposes over the past decade. In 2022 alone, 285,000 individual animals of 170 species were exported.

A recent study (Jennah Green et al, 2023) on wildlife reveals that during the period 2000-2022, at least 487 wildlife species were farmed across the world. These comprised at least 27 amphibians, 133 reptiles, 249 birds, and 79 mammals. Of these documented species, 34 per cent are considered either Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered or Critically Endangered by the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and 62 per cent are listed on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices.

Wildlife farming, while potentially beneficial for conservation and economic development, can lead to genetic changes in both farmed and wild populations, potentially impacting their long-term survival and evolutionary potential. This can happen through both intentional (Selective Breeding, Artificial Insemination and Embryo Transfer) and unintentional genetic manipulation, including inbreeding, selection for desired traits, and genetic exchange with wild populations. Scientists fear that ‘Intentional Genetic Manipulation’ can lead to genetic erosion due to founder effect, genetic drift and inbreeding, potentially resulting in the fixation of deleterious alleles that may be co-inherited with anthropogenically-desired traits. Loss of heterozygosity and allelic diversity may impact on a species’ evolutionary potential and the reproductive potential of captive stock. Genetic exchange between farmed and wild populations could result in substantial alteration of local allele frequencies in natural populations, decreasing short-term fitness and long-term evolutionary potential, observes Isa-Rita M. Russo et al (2019).

Wildlife farming may also lead to zoonotic diseases—infectious illnesses that spread between animals and humans. These diseases are responsible for various outbreaks resulting in the deaths of millions of people for centuries.

Project Cheetah: A Controversial Initiative

In 2022, the Indian government initiated the Project Cheetah to reintroduce this nearly extinct wild animal. Under this ambitious experimental project, announced by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, 20 African cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus)—eight from Namibia and 12 from South Africa—were introduced into the Kuno National Park (KNP) in Madhya Pradesh. Early and successful breeding of cheetahs brought from Africa indicates that the reintroduction project in India is progressing well. A government report highlights that 17 cubs were born in two years, with 12 surviving, suggesting conducive habitat conditions at KNP for a stable cheetah population. The Indian authorities had prepared a standard operating procedure (SOP) to ensure successful reproduction by the cheetahs, reports The Economic Times. Notwithstanding its success, translocation of wild animals from Africa to India has raised many serious concerns. Environmentalists flag that this is neither ecologically sustainable nor ethical.

A study by the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS), which examined the ethical, ecological and welfare challenges associated with the translocation of African cheetahs to India, has expressed concern over the translocation of the animals and also raised questions about its scientific merit and long-term viability. CWS study highlights that the translocation of African cheetahs to India has resulted in significant welfare challenges, with a mortality rate of 40-50 per cent in the first phase of the project, far below the expected survival rate of 85 per cent. CWS also said that the cheetahs involved in the project have experienced high levels of stress, with over 90 chemical immobilisations and regular veterinary interventions, raising concerns about their physical and mental health, reports The Hindu.

Refuting this criticism, a recent paper titled, ‘Beyond Rhetoric: Debunking Myths and Misinformation on India’s Project Cheetah’ responds to concerns raised about cheetah mortality and claims that Project Cheetah is on promising track. Addressing the issue of animal deaths, the study states that some level of mortality is natural in any wildlife translocation effort. Between 2023 and mid-2025, adult cheetahs in Kuno National Park have shown survival rates of 70 per cent in the first year and 85.7 per cent in the second year. Of the 21 cubs born, 14 survived, a 66.67 per cent cub survival rate, considered encouraging for a species known for high early-stage mortality. The cheetahs in Kuno are neither held in artificial structures nor dependent on human provisioning. “Instead, they were initially held in soft release bomas (SRBs) with access to an adequate locally available prey base. These SRBs are fenced natural habitats within the larger Kuno landscape, allowing the cheetahs to hunt independently and exhibit natural behaviours while acclimatising to their new environment”, the paper explained. As of May 2025, Kuno is home to 31 cheetahs, suggesting that the introduced population is stable and growing, reports The Indian Express.

Though Project Cheetah is a conservation effort to reintroduce cheetahs—a species declared extinct in India in 1952—into suitable habitats within the country, and should not be termed as a wildlife farming project, its initial success in breeding of Cheetah has opened a new prospect for entrepreneurs to legally participate in the flourishing global wildlife trade.

Vantara by Reliance Industries

Reliance Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Reliance Industries, established Vantara—an animal rescue, care, and rehabilitation initiative in 2019. Located within a 3,500-acre green belt at Motikhavdi village in Jamnagar district, Gujarat, India, the initiative focuses on the treatment and rehabilitation of injured or displaced animals and the conservation of endangered species, both in India and abroad.

Vantara was conceptualised and led by Anant Ambani, a board member of Reliance Industries and Reliance Foundation. The project was officially launched on February 26, 2024, and was later inaugurated by the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, on March 4, 2025. It may be recalled that in 2022, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the Project Cheetah.

As of 2025, the facility reportedly housed more than 150,000 animals across over 2,000 species. Vantara received the Prani Mitra award in the corporate category from the Animal Welfare Board of India for its contributions to animal welfare. The initiative has also faced criticism and controversy surrounding the alleged unethical sourcing of animals and their use in private exhibitions and entertainment. The viability and ethical justification behind zoos are surrounded by a heavily debated discourse. Vantara — “The Greens Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Kingdom” — is claimed to be one of the world’s largest private zoos.

The major concern of the animal lovers and environmentalists about private zoos in India is the near absence of a proper regulatory body for the protection of animals. The Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, which is the primary statutory law that governs wildlife protection in India, does not lay down the procedural requirement to be followed by zoos. Its mandate is only limited to defining what exactly a zoo means and the roles and responsibilities to be followed by the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) which is an independent body like the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI), responsible for regulating the zoos in India while laying down the procedural requirements to be followed for the establishment and functioning of zoos.

It is reported that the Reliance Industries has received permission from CZA to import around 286 animals of 17 species, including various endangered and threatened species of animals from zoos across the world and domestic zoos in India. The recent transfer of two black panthers from Assam State Zoo to the RIL private zoo has sparked major controversy. This purportedly took place in exchange for the transfer of four zebras from a zoo in Israel to the Assam Zoo in accordance with a Memorandum of Understanding between the Reliance Zoo in Gujarat and the Israel Zoo.

Significantly, on August 3, 2025, over 30,000 people joined a 45-kilometre silent march, demanding the return of elephant Mahadevi. People were protesting the court-ordered relocation of elephant Mahadevi to Vantara’s sanctuary in Gujarat. Mahadevi, who was with a Jain monastery at Nandani in Maharashtra’s Kolhapur district for over three decades, was relocated to the Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust (RKTEWT) in Vantara’s wildlife rehabilitation facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, following a court ruling. While the Bombay High Court and Supreme Court cited years of neglect and poor health as grounds for her rehabilitation, locals insist she is part of their religious and cultural heritage. For the Jain community in Nandani, Mahadevi is more than just an animal. She represents a centuries-old tradition. According to the math, elephants have been part of their rituals for 600 years, reports the Economic Times.

Between 2019 and early 2024, the two principal building blocks of Vantara – the Radhe Krishna Temple Elephant Welfare Trust and Greens Zoological, Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre – have indeed amassed an extraordinary assemblage of wildlife, including multiple endangered species. A high-powered committee (HPC) constituted by the High Court of Tripura on November 7, 2022, to recommend whether elephants should be transferred to Jamnagar, found that as of April 1, 2023, the Trust was home to 170 of the animals.

By the end of 2023, Vantara had overtaken the National Zoological Park of Delhi, which had 1,114 animals from 100 species in 2020–21. Greens hosts about as many individual birds and animals as New York City’s fabled Bronx Zoo. Its 2022–23 annual report lists 857 marsh crocodiles, 229 leopards, 76 “hybrid” lions, 71 tigers, more than 1,200 iguanas, 225 African spurred tortoises, and not to mention Nile crocodiles, saltwater crocodiles, Siamese crocodiles, gharials, grizzly bears, black bears, African lions, cheetahs, Nile hippopotamuses, chimpanzees, an orangutan, a Komodo dragon, and more, reports HIMAL.

A report, published on March 13, by German daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), in collaboration with a Venezuelan investigative media outlet, has raised several concerns regarding Vantara’s sourcing of animals in need of rescue, and that many of them may have actually come from the wild. Vantara may have fuelled illegal wildlife trade, with animals possibly being sourced from their wild habitats through exporters from across the world. As per the report, the import data revealed that animals were delivered to Vantara from 32 countries, through 53 exporters. It found that the highest number of animals – a staggering 11,729 – came from exporters in the United Arab Emirates. These included endangered species such as 14 orang-utans and a mountain gorilla. The lone mountain gorilla at Vantara is the only one in captivity in the world, as per the report. The biggest supplier of animals to Vantara, the report said, was the Kangaroo Animals Shelter Centre and the Kangaroo Animals Centre in the UAE. This centre, which is registered as a zoo, has delivered animals only to Vantara. Incidentally, Dubai, in the UAE, is one of the biggest transit and destination hubs for live animals trafficked from Africa, Asia and South America. The German report, however, is “entirely baseless” and “misleading”, Vantara claimed in a statement to The Wire.

Controversial Dream Projects

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a major funder of the Global Crop Diversity Trust, which in turn supports the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. The Seed Vault acts as a global backup for crop diversity, storing seeds from gene banks worldwide to protect against loss due to various threats. Since 2007, Gates Foundation has remained one of the major contributors to the Svalbard Global Seed Vault to protect the genetic diversity of critical crops for food security and poverty alleviation. The Seed Vault safeguards duplicates of 1,301,397 seed samples from almost every country globally, with room for millions more. Located in Spitsbergen, part of Norway’s Svalbard archipelago, the Global Seed Vault has been dubbed the “doomsday” vault, which conjures up an image of a reserve of seeds for use in case of an apocalyptic event or a global catastrophe, reports TIME. However, these seeds are also the major genetic source for corporations who want to control the global food industry by promoting genetically modified seeds.

Both Bill Gates and Mukesh Ambani have strategised their future business plans to retain control on the natural sources of food grains and animals.

The writer is a professor of Business Administration who primarily writes on political economy, global trade, and sustainable development.
Views expressed are personal