Suzie, Bubloo also leave capital

Himalayan brown bears fly to sanctuary in Jordan

ISLAMABAD:

After Kaavan left over a fortnight ago, two rescued Himalayan brown bears flew to their new abode in Jordan on Thursday.

Their departure from the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad completed a process initiated by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) nearly six months ago to relocate all animals from the facility owing to the poor conditions there.

International global animal welfare organisation, Four Paws, and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) had made special arrangements for transporting the wild animals, first from the zoo to the airport and then from Pakistan to Jordan via a special flight.

The animals were transferred to a special crate for the journey at the zoo and then sedated for the journey.

At the airport, their crates were loaded on to a private airliner which would then fly them to Jordan via Qatar. A team from Four Paws would accompany the Himalayan bears during the journey.

Wildlife expert Dr Amir Khalil of Four Paws signed an affidavit that the brown bears will be well taken care of in Jordan’s sanctuary while he will provide monthly health updates on both bears to the relevant authorities in Pakistan.

In May, the IHC had ordered the government to transfer all animals in the zoo to sanctuaries because animals were deemed to have rights and that their entrapment in cramped enclosures with poor hygiene and dietary supply were akin to torture.

On November 30, the sole pachyderm at the Islamabad Zoo, the 34-year-old Asian bull elephant Kaavan, dubbed the ‘loneliest elephant in the world’ - had been transported to a sanctuary in Cambodia aboard a specially designed crate in a specially chartered cargo aircraft.

The plane had to be chartered because Kaavan weighed in at five tonnes and was quite overweight for his size and age. His crate weighed another five tonnes.

The court had also directed to transfer the two Himalayan brown bears, who were rescued from animal exhibitionists and street performers, to be transferred to an adequate sanctuary.

Subsequently, the court was told that a Jordanian sanctuary had been identified for the bears because no such sanctuary existed in the country. Those that did exist were reluctant to accept them.

The court agreed and the bears were initially due to be flown out on December 6.

The Ministry of Climate Change had issued export orders for the bears as well. However, the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB), which recently came under new management, decided to keep the bears at the Ayub National Park in Rawalpindi district.

The export orders were subsequently withdrawn. However, when the court was told about this, it asked whether the national park had the requisite facilities offered by the Jordanian sanctuary.

At this, Dr Khalil had told the court that it did not. IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah had subsequently ruled that there was no point in torturing the animals by transferring them from one cage to another cage and asked the IWMB to review its decision.

The IWMB earlier in the week told the court that it had decided to send the bears to the Jordanian sanctuary.