ISLAMABAD: Caving in to criticism over its decision to keep the only elephant in Islamabad Zoo chained, the CDA is now considering moving the animal to Lahore.

On Sept 8, the CDA chairman had ordered the zoo administration to unshackle, the 31-year-old Asian Elephant, known as ‘Kaavan’. However, this is yet to happen, because the zoo administration fear that unshackling the animal could prove risky.

In view of this, the CDA management has asked the authority’s environment wing to either shift the elephant to Lahore or arrange a mate for it.

“Right now, it won’t be possible to find Kaavan a partner, so we are considering the possibility of shifting him to the Lahore Zoo,” a senior CDA officer told Dawn on condition of anonymity.

Animals rights activists took to social media to vent when it emerged that the animal was kept chained. The ‘Help Free Kaavan’ petition has garnered over 44000 signatures thus far.

Kaavan’s mate, Saheli, died in 2012 and the animal has been kept chained up ever since.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2015

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