Global wildlife experts meet at Anant Ambani’s Vantara to strengthen conservation cooperation

An Amur tiger has no idea where one country ends and the next begins. Neither does an Oriental stork, a Blakiston’s eagle-owl or a great bustard. Their ranges cross the lines on our maps without pause. But the people working to save them have long struggled with the same problem: the animals move across borders easily, while knowledge about them often doesn’t.Bridging that gap was a key focus of the EARAZA 2026 conference held at Vantara, the wildlife rescue and care centre founded by Anant Ambani in Jamnagar. The event brought together representatives of 98 institutions from 30 countries, along with 29 Indian zoological institutions, to discuss greater cooperation in wildlife conservation.Experts exchanged experiences on coordinated conservation programmes for the Amur tiger, Oriental stork, Blakiston’s eagle-owl and great bustard - species whose survival depends on institutions across countries working with shared knowledge and aligned strategies. A decision taken at one zoological institution, they noted, can influence the prospects of a population thousands of kilometres away.EARAZA president Svetlana Akulova took the argument a step further. She made the case for a global data infrastructure for biodiversity, so that what one institution learns about breeding, health or behaviour can inform decisions at others. Today much of that knowledge stays inside the institution that produced it.Vantara offered a practical start. It is giving all EARAZA members one year of free access to ANTZ, its zoological management platform, which includes an Open Data Exchange that lets institutions share information and collaborate across the network.Technology was a recurring theme throughout the conference. Vantara showcased several ANTZ tools built specifically for wildlife care. One is Vespr, which identifies species from their sounds directly on the device. Another is Smart Egg Analysis, designed to help teams monitor eggs more closely. The third is NFC-enabled logging, which lets caregivers record animal-care rounds digitally. Taken together, they are meant to turn daily observations into usable data.The discussions on animal welfare reflected a similar shift. Instead of treating welfare only as a set of principles, delegates looked at how it can be measured through outcomes for individual animals, so that each animal’s condition becomes the actual test of good care. Sessions also covered building veterinary capacity and preparing institutions for crises.For professionals dealing with specific problems, the Solution Station gave them a place to bring real challenges in wildlife care and conservation and get guidance from experts. The point was to share practical knowledge between institutions rather than just presentations.The conference also looked beyond zoo walls to the public. Wildlife biologist and TV presenter Forrest Galante spoke about the role of mass media in bringing conservation to wider audiences, while other sessions looked at citizen science and how the visitor experience is changing. Conservation, speakers suggested, depends as much on public interest as on expertise.India’s own zoological community had its moment too. The conference marked the release of the Indian Zoo Year Book, Volume 11, the 2026 edition, which underlines the value of careful documentation in a field where records of past successes and failures guide future work.Six Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to leaders from India and abroad, recognising their contributions to zoological institutions and conservation over the years.As the delegates leave Jamnagar, the main question is whether the connections made this week will last. The tigers, storks and eagle-owls will keep crossing borders as they always have. The aim of the conference was to make sure conservation knowledge does the same.Get the latest India News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.