Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday approved the relocation of the elephant Kaavan from Islamabad Zoo to a sanctuary in Cambodia.
IHC had ordered Kaavan’s freedom in May and instructed wildlife officials to find him a “suitable sanctuary”.
Authorities told a Saturday hearing that an expert committee had recommended he be moved to a 25,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia for retirement.
“The court has agreed with the proposal,” Anis Ur Rehman, the chairman of Islamabad Wildlife management board said on Saturday.
Zoo officials have in the past denied that the Kaavan was chained up, instead claiming he was pining for a new mate after his partner died in 2012.
But his behaviour -- including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly -- demonstrated “a kind of mental illness”, Safwan Shahab Ahmad of the Pakistan Wildlife Foundation told AFP in 2016.
Activists also said Kaavan was not properly sheltered from Islamabad’s searing summer temperatures, which can rise above 40 degrees Celsius).
Kaavan’s plight drew the attention of Cher, who spent years calling for his freedom. She tweeted in May that the court’s decision to order his release was “one of the greatest moments of my life”.
Arriving in Pakistan as a one-year-old in 1985 from Sri Lanka, Kaavan was temporarily held in chains in 2002 because zookeepers were concerned about increasingly violent tendencies.
He was freed later that year after an outcry but it emerged in 2015 that he was once more being regularly chained for several hours each day.
Adviser to the Prime Minister on Climate Change Malik Amin Aslam said authorities would “free this elephant with a kind heart, and will ensure that he lives a happy life”.
The court’s May ruling also ordered dozens of other animals -- including brown bears, lions and birds -- to be relocated temporarily while the zoo improves its standards.
He said the decision of the expert committee of IWMB including international non-governmental organisations’ (NGOs) experts and government representatives was taken as per the directions of the IHC Aslam was talking to the media after visiting the Islamabad Zoo.
Aslam said Kavaan was 36 years old elephant that was given as gift from Sri Lanka in 1986 where another female elephant Saheeli was gifted by Bangladesh in 1990.
He added that after the demise of the female elephant Kaavan had developed certain psychological problems due to which the animal was kept in shackles.
Elephants necessarily require a companion and therefore, it was decided to send it to Cambodian sanctuary, he added.
“The decision is a sad but right step to be taken for Kaavan as Asian elephants have 40-45 years age and retirement is necessary keeping in view their health and future well being.”
Amin noted that all Pakistanis would bid farewell to Kavan with a heavy heart and best wishes so that it could spend its remaining life in a better place and environment.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 19th, 2020.
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