According to the government of Columbia, as many as 60 hippopotamuses will be shipped to India soon. What is interesting is that these hippos are the descendants of Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’.
The government of Columbia has announced that 70 out of the total hippopotamus population in the country will be shipped to Mexico and India soon, out of which India will get 60. The most interesting part about this is that these hippos are the descendants of animals owned by drug lord Pablo Escobar.
According to a report in The Washington Post, the 60 hippopotami being transferred to India descended from four African hippos illegally imported by drug lord Pablo Escobar in the 1980s through the money he made by selling and trafficking cocaine.
These ‘cocaine hippos’ of Pablo Escobar will be transferred to different sanctuaries in India as the Columbian government is unable to cope with their rapidly multiplying population. What started out as four African hippos have now turned into 130 animals.
All about Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’
Pablo Escobar, who was a menacing drug lord in Columbia during the 1980s had illegally purchased four African hippopotami through his laundered cocaine money. These hippos were a part of his private menagerie and his vast empire.
After his death in 1993, most of Pablo Escobar’s exotic animals were seized by the government, except for the four hippos because they were too difficult to move. They began to reproduce rapidly and set up camp along the Magdalena River basin, now around 130-160 in number.
The herbivore hippopotamus has been polluting the lake and depleting the plant density in the area, posing a threat to the locals. They tried to send the hippos back to Africa, but the government said that it was “not allowed”.
It was later decided that 60 of these hippopotamuses will be sent to India as the country has the resources to provide proper care and environment for them and also control their reproduction. The Indian government has not yet made a comment on the issue, while the relocation is expected to take place in a few months.
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 "Drug lord Pablo Escobar’s ‘cocaine hippos’ to be shipped to India, what’s special about these animals")
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