Vantara zoo urged to permanently end wild animal imports

More than two dozen international wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations have issued an open letter to Vantara, a private megazoo in Jamnagar, Gujarat, funded by Reliance Industries. The organizations are urging the facility to implement a permanent ban on the importation of wild animals, rather than the temporary moratorium recently announced by the zoo.

While the non-profits acknowledge Vantara’s recent commitments to pause pending and new live animal import applications and enhance conservation governance, they argue that a temporary pause is insufficient. The group, which includes the Jane Goodall Institute Global, the Animal Welfare Institute, and the Brigitte Bardot Foundation, is demanding full transparency, independent oversight, and stricter controls regarding the legality and origin of all animals.

The call for reform follows intense scrutiny from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) regarding the facility’s massive imports of endangered species. The organizations are calling for a transparent inventory of all animals at the park and for the term ‘rescue’ to be strictly defined to prevent it from being used to justify commercial acquisitions.