Lonely elephant battling ‘mental illness’
Print Edition
PAKISTAN’S lonely elephant Kaavan has become the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by music icon and actress Cher, but efforts to improve the pachyderm’s lot appear limited.
The 32-year-old Asian elephant is suffering from “mental illness,” and without a better habitat his future is bleak even if a long-promised new mate finally arrives.
Outrage over Kaavan’s treatment went global — with a petition garnering over 200,000 signatures — after it emerged he was being chained at the Islamabad Zoo in Pakistan’s leafy capital. Zoo officials have said this is no longer the case, and that Kaavan just needs a new mate after his previous partner died in 2012.
But his behavior, including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly, demonstrates “a kind of mental illness,” said Safwan Shahab Ahmad, the vice chairman of Pakistan Wildlife Foundation.
Asian elephants can roam thousands of kilometers through deep tropical and subtropical forests, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In contrast, Kaavan’s 90 by 140 meter pen has no foliage, and only limited shade is provided.
“Give Kaavan deep bushes and artificial showering and you will see him enjoying the environment,” said Ahmad, who has written several research papers on the elephant.
Arriving as a 1-year-old in 1985 from Sri Lanka, Kaavan was held in chains in 2002 because zookeepers were concerned about his violent tendencies, but he was freed later that year after an outcry.
His mate Saheli, who arrived also from Sri Lanka in 1990, died in 2012, and last year it emerged that Kaavan was regularly being chained.
Scores of people signed a petition sent to zoo authorities and Pakistan’s Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. The zoo said earlier this month that the elephant is no longer being restrained.
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