A Newcastle University spokesperson said the professorship \u2018recognises Mr Ambani\u2019s contributions to conservation, biodiversity protection, animal welfare and environmental stewardship\u2019. Photograph: Washington Imaging\/Alamy<\/p>\n
Bhuvan Mangalore, an Indian investigator into illegal wildlife trade who is completing a dissertation on Vantara at Anglia Ruskin University, asked: \u201cIs this a joke?\u201d<\/p>\n
Prof Matt Perry, the chair of the University and College Union branch at Newcastle University, said staff members had objected to the appointment citing environmental concerns.<\/p>\n
Prof Lyla Mehta, the head of the climate, environment and sustainability department at the University of Sussex\u2019s Institute of Development Studies, shared concerns that \u201cas public funding for universities falls, there is a real danger that billionaire and corporate money begins to shape academia\u201d.<\/p>\n
She said: \u201cUniversities are supposed to be places that question power and hold corporations to account, not give them academic legitimacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In April, Anant Ambani launched Vantara University, billed as the world\u2019s first global university dedicated to wildlife conservation and veterinary science.<\/p>\n
Lorne Stockman, a research co-director at Oil Change International, said: \u201cAt a time when the climate crisis demands an urgent phaseout of oil and gas, we must demand our publicly funded institutions do better.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Down to Earth<\/p>\n The planet’s most important stories. Get all the week’s environment news – the good, the bad and the essential<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n In 2025, an investigation by the German newspaper S\u00fcddeutsche Zeitung<\/a> found that many animals delivered to Vantara arrived through countries with opaque wildlife trading networks such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the United Arab Emirates, raising concerns that endangered species may have been illegally trafficked.<\/p>\n In August last year, an investigation by India\u2019s supreme court, which lasted less than three weeks, cleared the zoo\u2019s operators of any wrongdoing. A subsequent fact-finding mission<\/a> into the zoo by Cites, the UN body that regulates the trade of endangered species, found that some of the permits used to bring animals to Vantara were probably forged.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790257456_280_500.jpg\")
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