The first time I watched Studio Ghibli’s Boy and the Heron, I was reminded of Arif and a saurus crane. When Vantara was established, it became apparent to me that this was the cannibal Parakeet Kingdom in the film. When I came across Himal Southasian’s investigative report on Vantara, I decided to make a short animation to tell people about this.

Seva vs Sevalay

In 2022 a young farmer from Uttar Pradesh, north India, rescued an injured saurus and was charged under India’s Wildlife Protection Act for baiting a wild animal. The bird was taken away from him and quarantined at a zoo. Their separation became a national spectacle.

The punitive action of the wildlife authorities on both Arif and the saurus- two groups who often encounter each other in the farm wetlands-reveal the fortress conservation outlook by the authorities where coexistence is punished, and the persistent demonisation of a Muslim person’s relationship to animals- both wild, or livestock, under radical Hindu Islamophobia.

In 2024 Vantara opened at Reliance’s oil refinery in Jamnagar Gujarat during Anant Ambani’s wedding celebrations. It currently hosts one of the largest collection of endangered and legally protected species, not only from India but around the world. Anant Ambani claims that this is not a zoo- but follows the Hindu tradition of seva (service) to nature. Its special focus is on injured, displaced, or endangered species. Yet a large number of wild elephants from north east India ended up in its complex. Vantara is able to get away with this because of dilution of laws with exceptions introduced favoring Hindu practices.

In 2021, the government’s draft Wild Life Protection (Amendment) Bill said any person with a valid ownership certificate should be allowed to transfer and transport live elephants with permission from the relevant state governments. Among the restrictions this would dilute was Section 43 of the WLPA, which strictly regulated the transfer of elephants. After a Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Jairam Ramesh, of the opposition Congress party, recommended a relaxation of the rules specifically for religious purposes, the union government brought in a sweeping amendment that allowed the transfer of captive elephants for “religious or any other purpose”– Himal Southasian’s investigative report The cost of Reliance’s Wildlife Ambitions

These types of amendments to India’s Wildlife Protection Laws not only legalise use of elephants at temples, it legitimizes wildlife trafficking by Vantara under its rehabilitation and rescue mission.

I wanted to make something about Arif’s act of service in contrast to this Sevalay (house of service)- which astoundingly stands at an oil refinery!

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Process

This was the first time I tried out a monoprint morph, it is quite time consuming but I decided on this direction rather than referencing the parakeets from the film directly. The intent is to surprise the viewer about the different moving parts in frame rather than have only superimposed elements over a static background.

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I have made very short 1 min loop edits from Himal’s talk, which looks at privatisation of wildlife with Vantara as case study- save for independent journalists and conservationists, a majority of the coverage around this project has been uncritically deferential.