What is the India connect to Pablo Escobar's hippos? | Watch to find out

Cocaine baron Pablo Escobar's hippopotamuses' are exacting a heavy price from Colombia for their transporation to oversees sanctuaries.

The South American nation is planning to shift 70 of Escobar's hippos to Mexico and India and the entire cost of the operation will reportedly cost the country approximately $3.5 million.

Authorities said they plan to capture and move nearly half of the hippopotamuses in the coming months, with 10 bound for the Ostok Sanctuary in northern Mexico, and 60 destined for India.

“The whole operation should cost around $3.5m,” Ernesto Zazueta, the owner of the Ostok Sanctuary said.

He and the local governor of the Colombian region that is home to the hippos say they plan to lure the animals with bait into pens, where they will remain confined before being put in special crates for the transfer.

Pablo Escobar, the drug lord, brought 4 of these African animals to Colombia in the 1980s. However, after Escobar's death in 1993, the animals escaped his estate and began roaming freely in hot, marshy lands and grew in number.

The present count of Escobar's hippos stands at 150. A sterilisation program by Colombia did not work on the animals either because hippos breed faster than authorities can catch and castrate them.

News organisation The Guardian reported that with no natural predator to keep the beasts in check, their population will continue to rise with one study estimating that by 2034, their number will be 1,400.

Citing various studies, The Guardian further reported that the hippos are polluting the area they are residing in, in Colombia and that there has been a rise in hippo-human conflict.

The environment ministry declared the hippos an invasive species in 2022, which opened the door to an eventual cull. But the hippo transfer plan is seen as a life-saving measure.

with AFP inputs

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