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Indian billionaire's son offers home for Escobar's hippos / Photo: Raul ARBOLEDA - AFP/File
Indian billionaire's son offers home for Escobar's hippos
An Indian billionaire's son offered on Tuesday to take hippos descended from those introduced to Colombia by drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, rather than have the animals killed.
Anant Ambani, the son of tycoon Mukesh Ambani, said he had formally requested the Colombian government to stay a decision to kill the animals, which have wreaked havoc on rivers in the South American nation.
Instead, he has asked to allow the "safe, scientifically-led translocation that would bring the 80 animals to a permanent home" at his Vantara animal centre.
The vast zoo in India's western state of Gujarat bills itself as the "one of the world's largest wildlife rescue, care and conservation centres".
Vantara is already home to hundreds of elephants, as well as 50 bears, 160 tigers, 200 lions, 250 leopards and 900 crocodiles, among other animals, according to India's Central Zoo Authority.
Experts have repeatedly sounded the alarm on Vantara's massive animal intake, including the import of critically endangered and rare species.
Escobar brought hippos -- which are native only to Africa and can weigh up to several tonnes -- to Colombia in the 1980s.
After Escobar's death, hippos from his private zoo made a new life in the lush river banks of the Colombia's Magdalena River -- where they have attacked fishermen, prompting moves to cull them.
Anant Ambani, son of the billionaire head of the multinational conglomerate Reliance Industries, said he had submitted a detailed plan to give the animals a new home at Vantara.
The animal centre is sited alongside the Reliance Jamnagar Refinery Complex, which the conglomerate says is the world's largest crude oil refinery.
Summers there can get extremely hot, with temperatures soaring above 40C.
Ambani's proposal sets out a veterinary-led capture and transport, as well as the creation of a "purpose-designed naturalistic setting" for the hippos, according to a statement.
"Vantara has the expertise, infrastructure and resolve to support this effort, entirely on Colombia's terms," the statement said.
"These 80 hippos did not choose where they were born, nor did they create the circumstances they now face," Ambani added.
"They are living, sentient beings, and if we have the ability to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have a responsibility to try."
T.Barbieri--INP
