An Open Letter to Anant Ambani
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| A picture of abandoned "feral elephants" in interview Island, Andaman District. © Department of Information and Publicity, UT Administration of ANI |
By Malini Shankar
Reliance chairman billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s son
Anant Ambani has displayed some exemplary priorities in his own life. His
passion for wildlife conservation saw the creation of Vantara a sprawling,
reportedly well kept private zoo in their family backyard – Jamnagar in western
Gujarat. Whether or not permits are available from CITES / UNCBD is a moot
point as the influential billionaire has the blessings and patronage of the Indian
Prime Minister himself.
Anant Ambani is in the news again because he is
trying to save Hippos in deceased Drug Kingpin Pablo Escobar’s private zoo from
the Firing Squad; the Hippos are facing starvation in the Zoo by name Hacienda
Nápoles in Colombia. “In December 1993, the day after Pablo Escobar was
shot dead on a rooftop in Medellin, government officials arrived at Hacienda
Nápoles to take stock of what he had left behind. The estate covered 20 square
kilometres of Antioquian lowland. There were artificial lakes, a Formula 1
racetrack, concrete dinosaurs, a bullring, luxury residences, and a zoo
containing animals that had been smuggled into Colombia aboard drug planes —
giraffes, ostriches, antelopes, elephants, exotic birds from three continents.”
Reports have it that Vantara is
in the process of rescuing the hippos and bring them to Vantara. Its very noble
and kind of Anant Ambani indeed, except that the CITES laws will be a
hindrance. Secondly invasive species such as non-native Hippos in Colombia are
non-native in India too. Government run zoos have the license to ‘keep animals,
breed them in captivity, and study their natural history behaviour as well as
wildlife psychology’. The passion at first glance seems to be to ‘have / acquire’
what is amiss in Vantara.
Speaking personally for myself I
fully endorse the kind hearted response of Anant Ambani to save the Hippos from
execution, and to give them a space to live…
But zoos that too unauthorised
zoos lack an ecosystem or ecological role for biodiversity enhancement so the
CITES legislation is a public policy instrument for ex-situ conservation.
In ferrying few Hippos from an
illegal enclosure to another private facility by private aircraft might
circumvent airport security; it still does not render the import legal, all the
same.
However Mr. Anant Ambani would do
well to be a bit better informed. There are other priorities locally. The
abandoned Asian Elephants in Interview
Island in the Andaman Islands. The British Colonial powers had transhipped Asian
Elephants to the Andamans to log timber in the thick wet evergreen forests of
the Islands and they were tamed, chained and exploited and abused infinitely in
timber depots. At the time of transfer of power to newly independent India the Brits
did not think twice or bat an eyelid in not discharging their responsibilities
of transferring back the elephants from Andaman Islands, busy as they were In
plundering the ferns from north east and other jewels from the Subcontinent,
large parts of which remain undocumented.
Indeed the fate or number or
location of the abandoned elephants too remain shrouded in mystery. How they have come to monopolise habitat of
Interview Island remains a mystery too. In any case there are an estimated 200
odd elephants at last count (don’t know when that was done – but so acquiesced
by the UT Administration nevertheless).
None even knows if there is
poaching of these hapless not conserved Asian Elephants. There was one case
about a decade and a half ago when some Islander was caught with Ivory and tusks.
When confronted with legal action he tried to palm it off by saying it was
whale bone, but to his ill luck, whales are also Schedule 1 in India’s Wildlife
Protection Act 1972. These Asian Elephants ”are not native” to the Islands, in the neo parlance
of the Biodiversity Regime.
Although wet evergreen rain
forests clog the land strips in Andaman Nicobar Islands, the scientists aver
that Asian Elephants do not belong to the Andaman Nicobar Islands. They are
native to Mainland Asia – Subcontinent, China, Myanmar. Thailand and Malaysia
beyond the oceans and Andaman Nicobar Islands… but not to ANI. Bornean Pygmy Elephants
for instance was a case of Brahma the Creator telling Lord Vishnu the one who
sustains Life - “Honey I shrunk the Kids” because oceans isolated the genetic
pool of Island Elephants.
As destiny has played it out, you
Mr. Anant Ambani is the only living human being who has the heart and resources
to move elephants across oceans it seems! Scientists say they have absolutely
no conservation value in ANI and are somehow restricted to the confines of
Interview Island in ANI.
There is a far more urgent need
for you Mr. Anant Ambani to arrange for resources to translocate these abandoned
Asian Elephants from Interview Island in Andaman Nicobar Islands with technical
help from Centre for Ecological Sciences Indian Institute of Science Bangalore,
Wildlife Institute of India Dehradun, Zoological Survey of India Eastern Range –
Port Blair / Sri Vijaypuram, Forest Survey of India etc…Please make sure that
tranquilsing elephants are not undertaken – simply because it does not work.
Ideally the elephants are brought
to Mainland India and let loose in thick wet evergreen rainforests, ideally in
the Western Ghats. But no one knows where these elephants and their ancestors
were taken from in Indian Mainland…
Nearest land access in India will
be Sundarbans in West Bengal. Myanmar is also very close – barely 300
kilometres from Interview Island. But poaching is very high in Myanmar.
Thailand and Malaysia are ok too, but again there is some evidence of abuse of
wildlife in Thailand. So best to bring them to Sundarbans. They might get
traumatised during adjustment in new terrain but it is a matter of time before
they disburse and migrate, integrate with other groups and hopefully progenate
thereafter.
Here is a chance for Mr. Anant
Ambani to have a Happy Ending for Elephants and feel soul satisfied himself…
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