Vantara Under Lens

Vantara, the sprawling wildlife facility in Jamnagar backed by Reliance Industries, has announced a self-imposed moratorium on all wild animal imports, backdated to June 5, 2026. The 12-month pause, which runs until June 2027, was framed as part of a broader “reset” of the organization’s operations following sustained scrutiny over its acquisition practices.

As part of this reset, Vantara withdrew all pending import applications and committed to shifting its focus from ex-situ rescue toward in-situ conservation in the animals’ countries of origin. The facility also established a new governing council chaired by John Scanlon AO, former Secretary-General of CITES, with a three-tier review process for any future acquisitions.

However, a coalition of 27 international wildlife conservation and animal welfare organizations has responded with an open letter dated September 22, 2026, urging Vantara to make the moratorium permanent. The letter, addressed to Amit Aggarwal, President of Regulatory Affairs at Vantara, acknowledges the announced changes but argues that a time-limited pause “may signal to exporters that imports will resume thereafter,” risking the stockpiling of animals by traffickers in anticipation of the deadline’s expiration.

The NGO Demands

The coalition—which includes Pro Wildlife, the Jane Goodall Institute Global, Born Free Foundation, the Pan African Sanctuary Alliance, and the Orangutan Information Centre—has made 14 specific requests of Vantara. These include:

· Replace the temporary moratorium with a permanent end to wild animal imports, subject only to extremely limited and exceptional exemptions based on clearly defined criteria
· Publish a complete, regularly updated public inventory of all animals held at Vantara, including origins, transfers, births, and deaths
· Ensure independent oversight of the newly created governance structures, with published mandates and no conflicts of interest, noting that panel members may be compensated by Vantara and are appointed and subject to dismissal by Vantara
· Halt all direct or indirect payments linked to animal acquisitions, warning that such payments “may fuel commercial exploitation, incentivise wild capture, and encourage the mislabeling of wild-caught animals as ‘rescued’ or ‘captive-bred'”
· Prioritize repatriation of animals to range states for rehabilitation and release where possible

The NGOs also point out that Vantara’s moratorium includes exemptions for future imports from captive-bred facilities, which could still enable “laundering” of wild-caught animals presented as captive-bred.

Background: The CITES Findings

The controversy stems from a 2025 CITES Secretariat report that raised serious concerns about the origin and scale of wild animal imports approved by India for transfer to Vantara. The Secretariat found that many animals did not have a history of being captively bred, and identified discrepancies including wrong source codes on permits, evidence suggesting payment for animals despite denials, and doubtful captive-bred status of species including cheetahs, chimpanzees, and orangutans.

The report noted that Vantara had acquired more than 2,000 Appendix I animals and nearly 9,000 from less endangered species, with imports totaling some 60,000 live animals across 2,000 species over four years. Czech authorities informed CITES they had “no doubts that the animals imported from Czechia had been sold to the GZRRC (under Vantara) and were not exported for the purpose of rescue,” contradicting India’s position that no payments were made.

Notably, the CITES Secretariat recommended a pause on trade in the most threatened species, but this recommendation was withdrawn at a November 2025 Standing Committee meeting in Uzbekistan following opposition from India, the US, Japan, and Brazil. Belgium, the EU, UK, and Switzerland had argued to retain the trade suspension, citing “an exceptional situation, with a huge number of animals going to a single facility”.

Independent International Scrutiny: CITES SC81

The dispute now moves to Geneva, where the CITES Standing Committee—an independent international body representing the six major geographic regions—will convene for its 81st meeting (SC81) from 2–6 November 2026 at the Centre International de Conférences Genève.

The Standing Committee is the governing body that steers the work and performance of the Convention between meetings of the Conference of the Parties. It provides policy and operational guidance on implementation and enforcement, and oversees compliance with decisions adopted at CITES CoP20 (Samarkand, 2025).

According to the Geneva Environment Network briefing, SC81 will address compliance matters, including the application of Article XIII, trade in captive-bred specimens, and illegal trade and enforcement matters. These agenda items are directly relevant to the Vantara case.

At this meeting, delegates will examine India’s strengthened verification procedures, the independence of Vantara’s oversight arrangements, and the long-term welfare of thousands of animals already in its care. The Standing Committee has the authority to recommend trade measures if compliance concerns remain unresolved, though such decisions require support from member nations.

The meeting will also consider recommendations from the CITES Animals and Plants Committees on conservation and trade of various species, and address strategic matters including capacity-building and enhancing the efficiency of the Convention.