Gated Arks in Sacrifice Zones: Vantara and the Political Economy of âConservationâ by DebaprasadBandyopadhyay Via Flickr: onceinabluemoon2021.in/2026/04/20/gated-arks-in-sacrifice... Vantara, the 3,500-acre private wildlife sanctuary run by the Reliance Foundation in Jamnagar and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 4th March 2025, is promoted as the worldâs largest rescue centre. Through a radical ecological-regenerative lens grounded in animal liberation ethics and multispecies justice, this analysis reveals it as a gated corporate biopolitical enclosure that converts ecological refugeesâproduced by Relianceâs polluting refinery and global extractivismâinto spectacles for dynastic branding and moral capital. Integrating controversies over dubious sourcing, transport trauma, CITES due-diligence failures, media suppression, and climatic hypocrisy with a comparison of ex-situ Humboldt penguin facilities (Vantara and Byculla) against proven in-situ efforts in Peru, South Africa, and Argentina, the essay critiques how crony-dynastic capitalism, including the AmbaniâPiramal nexus and Campa Cola operations, externalises ecological harm while staging compassion. It calls for abolishing commodified captivity and embracing decolonized, liberatory restoration that restores more-than-human autonomy in living ecosystems rather than managing bare life in fortified corporate arks.
















