Vantara’s Conservation Model is worth emulation

In western India, on the edge of Gujarat, a sanctuary called Vantara has begun to change the way the world thinks about animal rescue. Spread across more than 3,500 acres, it has become one of Asia’s most ambitious conservation initiatives, combining scale with science, and compassion with credibility.

India, like South Africa, faces its own challenges with captive wildlife. The country is home to more than 2,600 elephants in captivity — one-fifth of the global captive population—with over 60% of them privately owned, often in exploitative or inadequate conditions.

More than 150 recognised zoos across the country care for tens of thousands of wild animals, from tigers and leopards to antelopes and reptiles, but many struggle with resources and overcrowding. Without intervention, too many animals would continue to live and die in substandard facilities.

Vantara emerged as an answer. Over the last three years, it has provided refuge for more than 2,000 rescued animals, including over 200 elephants freed from abusive labour camps, temples, circuses and private homes. In early 2025, in a rescue operation sanctioned by India’s Supreme Court, Vantara received 20 elephants from Arunachal Pradesh, where they had been used in the logging industry. Today, those elephants live chain-free, in habitats that mimic the forests they once knew, with access to hydrotherapy, advanced veterinary care and social herds.

The sanctuary has not limited its focus to charismatic megafauna. It has worked with local forest authorities to rescue spotted deer, antelope, and even impalas that had strayed into dangerous environments such as mining areas.

Recently, the Gujarat Forest Department and Vantara joined hands to enhance wildlife diversity in the Barda Wildlife Sanctuary, introducing 33 spotted deer (chital) into a protected area — an effort that directly strengthens native ecosystems.

Vantara’s impact has been recognised at the highest levels. In 2023, it received the Prani Mitra Award, India’s top honour for animal welfare, from the country’s Central Zoo Authority. This is no small feat: the award is typically conferred on public zoos or state institutions. For a privately managed sanctuary to be honoured shows the degree to which Vantara has set new benchmarks for animal care.

Beyond rescue, Vantara is now shaping the way conservation is taught and practised. In partnership with Project Elephant, under India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, it launched the largest-ever national training programme for elephant caregivers. The five-day initiative, called the Vantara Gajsevak Sammelan, brought together more than 100 mahouts and elephant handlers from across the country to improve welfare practices and modernise care.

Equally groundbreaking has been its focus on science-led capacity building. In August 2025, Vantara hosted its first Veterinary Training Course on “Introduction to Conservation Medicine”, part of its “Healing the Wild” initiative.

The three-day programme gathered 54 veterinarians from across India to build expertise in wildlife rescue, rehabilitation and conservation medicine — skills critical for countries like South Africa, where veterinary shortages often constrain rescue work.

Vantara’s veterinary hospital itself is among the most sophisticated in the world, with CT scans, MRIs, hydrotherapy pools, and even intensive care units for wildlife. These innovations have increased survival rates in injured animals and enabled successful rehabilitation across species.

Perhaps most striking is Vantara’s willingness to submit to stringent regulation. India’s laws require that all zoos in India, including Vantara, are subject to oversight by India’s Central Zoo Authority, ensuring they meet strict welfare, conservation and reporting standards. This credibility has allowed it to join international collaborations, such as the reintroduction of Brazil’s Spix’s macaw, a bird once declared extinct in the wild.

For South Africa, struggling with the fallout of its captive lion industry—where between 8,000 and 12,000 lions are kept in more than 300 facilities compared with only about 3,000 left in the wild—Vantara’s story is more than a distant success. It is a model that could be adapted, and a partner that could be embraced. South African zoos and sanctuaries, increasingly under strain, could benefit from twinning arrangements and exchanges with Vantara-like facilities.

The lesson from India is clear. Humane solutions are possible, even in countries where captivity is deeply entrenched. With resources, regulation and vision, animals once destined for chains or cramped cages can rediscover dignity.

Vantara has shown this in just three years. The question now is whether South Africa’s institutions will be bold enough to seek out such international collaboration -and give our own captive animals the same chance at life.