BANGKOK, Thailand (AFP) — Leading wildlife protection experts have urged India to suspend all imports of the world’s most endangered species, endorsing long-running concerns by conservationists about mass acquisitions by mega-zoo Vantara.

The facility in western Gujarat state, officially known as the Green Zoological Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, is run by the son of Asia’s richest man.

It has scooped up tens of thousands of animals in recent years, and was subject to an Indian Supreme Court review that cleared it of any wrongdoing.

But experts from the world’s top wildlife watchdog — the secretariat overseeing the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) — have warned Vantara may have imported highly endangered species in violation of international rules.

In a report published ahead of CITES talks this month, they found a “large number of imports... appear to be inconsistent” with rules protecting so-called Appendix I species, the world’s most threatened animals.

They recommended serious reforms to ensure Vantara does “not inadvertently become a driver of illegal harvest of wild animals.”