News outlets receive 'threat mails', some delete stories on concerns over Ambanis' Vantara project

By Shinjinee Majumder on 12th March 2025

Days after reporting on a South African wildlife organization raising concerns about the functioning of the Reliance-owned Vantara Animal and Rehabilitation Centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, at least three major media outlets have taken down their stories from the web.

In a letter dated March 6, the Wildlife Animal Protection Forum of South Africa (WAPFSA), a coalition of 30 organizations advocating for animal welfare, urged the country's environment ministry to investigate the large-scale transfer of wild animals, including leopards, cheetahs, tigers, and lions, from South Africa to Vantara.

Vantara, a project by the Reliance group and led by Anant Ambani, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on March 4. The 3000-acre facility that "focuses on caring for sick and endangered animals from India and other countries and on their rescue, treatment, and rehabilitation", houses a 650-acre setup dedicated to rescued animals, known as the Greens Zoological, Rescue, and Rehabilitation Centre (GZRRC). In the letter addressed to South African environment minister Dion George, the WAPFSA raised concerns about potential non-compliance by Vantara with the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). CITES is a multilateral treaty that regulates the global trade of endangered animals and plants.

The development was reported by multiple Indian media outlets between March 9 and March 11, which emphasized the key points raised in WAPFSA's letter to the minister. These outlets include Deccan Herald, The Telegraph, Financial Express, The Tribune Scroll, The Wire, Northeast Now, Vartha Bharati, and Down To Earth. We also found a report on Bengali digital news platform inscript.me.

Interestingly, at the time of this article being written, Deccan Herald, The Telegraph and The Tribune have taken down their stories and the reader is met with an 'Error 404' or a 'Page Not Found' message upon clicking on the link to the articles. See below:

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Here is an archived version of the now-deleted Deccan Herald article.

"Purpose More Commercial, Less Conservationist"

Concerns about Vantara's potential non-compliance with CITES were first raised at the 77th meeting of the CITES standing committee (SC77) in November 2023. On July 28, 2023, representatives from GZRRC visited the CITES secretariat. They explained that in recent years, GZRRC had rescued animals in difficult conditions outside India and imported them to India from various countries. Despite this explanation, concerns were expressed about the legality of those transactions and the methods used to obtain CITES documents.

A longer report by the WAPFSA titled "Neither Rescue nor Conservation: The Accumulation of India's Vantara's Wild Animal Collection Sourced From South Africa," highlights the significant number of leopards, cheetahs, tigers, and lions exported from South Africa to GZRRC and suggests that many of these animals, bred in captivity in South Africa, may have been traded for commercial purposes rather than genuine conservation efforts. The network called for an urgent investigation into the matter.

Vantara has been described as a "wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and conservation centre," housing over 2,000 species and more than 1.5 lakh rescued, endangered, and threatened animals. However, WAPFSA, in its documents, refers to Vantara as a "zoo" and argues that it is ill-equipped to handle the wildlife species being imported from South Africa, including several endangered animals.

The WAPFSA report also raised concerns about Vantara's location, stating, "Questions have been raised about the suitability of the location of Vantara because Gujarat is hotter than many parts of India, potentially making its location unsuitable for many of the species imported to the zoo." The report also highlighted the fate of cheetahs exported to India from Namibia and South Africa, noting that many had either died or had to be recaptured after being released into the wild from enclosed areas.

Additionally, it mentioned that Brazil, the only country with Spix Macaws, had objected to Germany sending the near-extinct species to Vantara, as the facility is not a signatory to Brazil's conservation program.

The Vanishing Stories

Noticing the stories ceasing to be accessible on Telegraph and Deccan Herald websites, Alt News reached out to both the organizations. Someone in a senior editorial position at The telegraph refused to comment citing 'lack of authorization to speak to media'. A Deccan Herald representative, too, stated that he "could not comment, officially or unofficially."

The case of the Financial Express report is equally intriguing, if not more. They had originally published a report titled, "South African organisation raises alarm over export of wild animals from South Africa to Ambani's Vantara". However, when one clicks on the link to this article now, they are redirected to an article titled, "Vantara: A Model for Animal Welfare: 10 Things That Make It Unique". The URL, however, remains unchanged. See below:

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While the original article reported on concerns raised over the export f animals to Vantara and WAFSPA seeking "an independent scientific investigation to ensure the wellbeing of the animals", the currently available version eulogizes Vantara as the world's largest wildlife rescue operation, Asia's first wildlife hospital with advanced diagnostics, a global benchmark in quarantine facilities and specialized rescue centers, and lists other aspects that make it "unique." Here is a link to the archived version of the original article and here is an archive to their initial tweet.

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Media Outlets Receive 'Threatening Emails' , 'Financial Offers'

Alt News also reached out to Northeast Now, a Guwahati-based media outlet which has not taken down the story. Mahesh Deka, the editor, told us that the organisation received a threatening email post the publishing of the Vantara story about the request for investigation by a South African NGO. Other than the email, the organisation was also approached by a PR firm and offered financial incentives to take down the article or change it to a different version which the agency would propose. Even back in January, when NE Now wrote about elephants being transported to Gujarat from the northeast, multiple agencies from Delhi and Mumbai approached them with financial offers.

Vartha Bharati, a Karnataka-based media house, too, received similar communications. An editor from the organization told Alt News that they got a call regarding their Vantara article from a person identifying himself as a representative of Reliance Corporate Communication.

Another digital media outlet that has not taken down the story, too, confirmed to Alt News on condition of anonymity that they had received a threatening email.

Letter to Minister on WAPFSA Website Becomes Inaccessible

Additionally, we also noticed that the webpage containing the letter to the South African minister Dion George on the official website of the WAPFSA is also inaccessible. The archive of the page titled Vantara lists out the concerns related to exports of wild animals to India and also contains the link to the letter sent to Minister George. Below is a before and after comparison. Webpage link- https://wapfsa.org/vantara/

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We reached out to both WAPFSA and Vantara for more clarity on the issue. This report will be updated as and when we receive their responses.

A report by UK-based Independent has quoted Vantara as stating that the complaints against it were "seemingly driven by vested interests", and "an attempt to revive stale matters that have been thoroughly investigated and conclusively closed by CITES, the world's highest authority on wildlife transfer compliance". It also dismissed the allegations as "entirely false and baseless".