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Colombia has spent decades dealing with a rising number of the so-called “cocaine hippos” that can trace their roots back to Pablo Escobar. The country recently revealed its plans to exterminate a sizeable chunk of the population, but they could be saved by a wealthy benefactor who’s offered to fly them halfway across the globe.
In 1993, Pablo Escobar’s reign as the head of the Medellin cartel came to an end when he was gunned down by authorities in Colombia. The drug lord had spent close to two decades overseeing an empire built on the back of the cocaine he primarily funneled to the United States, an operation that was raking in $420 million a week at its peak.
Escobar used some of his fortune to construct a compound known as Hacienda Nápoles, which included a zoo that was home to a menagerie of exotic animals. That included four hippos that made their way into the wild after his death, which began to reproduce while wreaking havoc on local ecosystems with their toxic poop.
Officials in Colombia have harnessed a few different strategies to slow the growth of an invasive population that’s estimated to have grown to 170 of those massive mammals, and earlier this month, they announced they were gearing up to take some drastic action to bring that number down with a mass culling.
However, one man with plenty of money at his disposal has stepped in to offer an alternative solution.
The son of an Indian billionaire has offered to save Pablo Escobar’s “cocaine hippos” from a planned culling
The hippos have not only impacted the environment in Colombia but have also become a bit of a nuisance for people in the areas where they’ve set up shop. There have been a number of incidents where people had to flee the aggressive animals, as well as one where one of the beasts was killed in a car crash after wandering onto a road.
Wildlife officials have attempted to curb reproduction with a castration campaign that did not have the desired results, and in 2023, 10 of them were airlifted to Mexico after someone shelled out $45,000 to facilitate their relocation.
However, that only put a tiny dent in the overall number, and a couple of weeks ago, Colombia’s environment minister announced the country would be making a concerted effort to hunt down and kill at least 80 of the hippos.
According to CNN, that plan came to the attention of Anant Ambani, an Indian businessman who manages the energy wing of Reliance Industries, the conglomerate overseen by his father Mukesh, who has an estimated net worth north of $120 billion.
The younger Ambani has used some of that fortune to fund Vantara, an animal sanctuary in the city of Jamnagar that’s home to more than 150,000 creatures representing over 2,000 unique species.
On Monday, the organization revealed it has reached out to the Colombian government to attempt to save the cocaine hippos from the culling by capturing and transporting them to a “specially curated, enriched environment” in India.
Ambani also released a statement addressing the situation, saying:
“These 80 hippos did not choose where to be born, nor did they create the circumstances they now face.
They are living, sentient beings, and if we have the capacity to save them through a safe and humane solution, we have the responsibility to try.”
It seems like it would be quite the undertaking, so it will be interesting to see how this ends up playing out.