NEWCASTLE UNIVERSITY has been criticised for awarding a professorship in sustainability to Anant Ambani, the son of Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani. Critics have raised concerns about Vantara, the vast wildlife centre in India that he owns.
The university announced on September 14 that it had made Ambani a professor of practice in sustainability. It said the role recognised his significant contributions to advancing a more sustainable future.
The university said the work at Vantara closely aligned with its own research on global conservation and biodiversity targets.
It also highlighted Ambani's position as an executive director at Reliance Industries, the oil and retail conglomerate headed by his father.
The strongest criticism came from Lyla Mehta, a researcher at the Institute of Development Studies, which is affiliated with the University of Sussex.
Writing on social media on Thursday (24), Mehta said Newcastle University was "really stooping low here and making a mockery of sustainability".
She had earlier told the Guardian, which first reported the story, that universities should question power and hold corporations to account rather than lend them academic legitimacy.
Vantara's recent reset
Vantara, which calls itself the world's largest rescue centre, announced a major overhaul of its procedures last month. The changes followed concerns about the speed and scale of its acquisition of animals from around the world, including endangered species.
Wildlife conservationist Prerna Singh Bindra challenged the description of Vantara, a 3,500-acre site, as a conservation facility.
"It's a captive facility, a zoo. So how is this conservation? We need to protect wild animals in their natural habitats, not zoos," she told AFP.
Bindra said a university's role was to train a generation of conservationists. She argued that the appointment endorsed a shift away from protecting animals in the wild towards treating the collection of animals in zoos as conservation.
Vantara has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
