Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's family zoo faces questions over orangutan trade

Vantara, the giant private animal center run by the family of Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, is facing fresh questions from conservationists after the rescue of five baby orangutans in eastern India exposed the scale of the illegal trade in great apes into the country.

Villagers found the orangutans, three males and two females aged six to eight months, in a forest in the state of Odisha in early September. The animals were more than 2,700 kilometers (1,700 miles) from their native forests on the Indonesian islands of Borneo and Sumatra, and their mothers were likely killed when they were taken. They are now being cared for at an Indian zoo, and Indonesia's Ministry of Forestry says it is taking steps to bring them home and is sending experts to check their origins and health.

The case is the latest in a series. Two young Sumatran orangutans were found in boxes at a checkpoint in northeast India in 2022, another was rescued in 2023, and a young orangutan was found in an apartment near Mumbai in November 2024. India imported 41 orangutans from 2021 to 2024, according to data from CITES, the treaty body that governs trade in endangered species. Most commercial trade in orangutans is banned, but animals declared as bred in captivity are exempt.

"India has become the number one destination for the live trade of primates," said Sinan Serhadli, a wildlife trafficking expert at the Orangutan Information Centre in North Sumatra. He said the legal trade shows "loopholes" and possibly "corruption."

Questions over Vantara's animals

Vantara was founded by Anant Ambani, the youngest son of the chairman of Reliance Industries, and operates with the Reliance Foundation. The 3,500-acre complex in Jamnagar, in the western state of Gujarat, holds more than 150,000 animals from over 2,000 species and is closed to the public.

The orangutan found near Mumbai in 2024, a male Sumatran orangutan named Heera, was moved to Vantara from a public zoo. A federal wildlife official's report said federal wildlife officials and India's CITES authority were not informed of the transfer. Heera was treated at Vantara for a respiratory infection and pneumonia, and Indonesia flew him home on Oct. 19 after 19 months at the center. He will spend up to 18 months at a rehabilitation center in North Sumatra before being released into the wild.

Vantara's inventory for 2024-25 lists a Tapanuli orangutan, the world's rarest great ape, with only about 716 left in the wild, all in a small area of Sumatra. CITES records show the animal left Indonesia and reached India through the United Arab Emirates. "That can't happen legally," Serhadli said. Indonesia's forestry ministry says it takes the reports seriously but cannot yet confirm the animal's species or origin without permit records and scientific tests.

In September, 27 conservation and animal welfare groups urged Vantara to stop importing wild animals, citing the more than 60,000 animals it acquired in a short period. In November 2025, the CITES Secretariat questioned Vantara shipments that included snow leopards from Germany and a bonobo said to have been bred in Iraq, and recommended tighter safeguards on India's import permits. A CITES committee later declined to impose trade restrictions on India. The CITES Secretariat declined to comment on the orangutan cases, saying the matter is under review.

Court cleared Vantara

Vantara has said its animal transfers are legal and comply with applicable standards. In September 2025, India's Supreme Court accepted the findings of a special investigation team led by former judge Jasti Chelameswar, which concluded that Vantara had not broken legal or ethical rules in acquiring and caring for animals. The court closed the petitions against it, and in March this year it dismissed a fresh request for another investigation into its animal imports.

Mukesh Ambani, 69, controls Reliance Industries, the conglomerate with businesses in oil refining, telecommunications and retail, and is one of Asia's richest people.