Pakistan recently made headlines across the globe on sending off Kaavan, the loneliest elephant in the world, to his new home in Cambodia. Social media was abuzz with remarks and a collective response was ‘we didn’t know’. But now that we do know, we hope it never happens again.

Kaavan, a bull, and his mate, Saheli, had been brought to Pakistan to be part of a zoo. Animal rescue is comparatively a novel idea in Pakistan, a populous nation struggling with basic public issues of healthcare, provision of food and clean water, shelter and education.

The response at Kaavan’s farewell by the locals show that we as a nation still do not know what to make of the entire scenario because our priorities lie with basic human rights. Except for the internet going crazy over Kaavan stories and a handful of independent animal rescue teams trying to raise awareness, the matter never made people cringe, for they still have bigger issues at hand.

Saheli’s early demise was unfortunate. With little or no attention being paid by the government, it was actually good for Kaavan that no other companion was brought in to suffer along with him, which made it possible for the latter to move out.

Pakistan is not a vile place incapable of keeping animals. It is just that animals have not been on the priority list, unless it is tradable livestock.

With politicians locking horns over domestic issues and basically focussing on basic rights of the people, no one has ever come forward full-fledged on matters related to the rights of the zoo-dwellers.

Pakistan does not have any mass-scale animal sanctuaries, except for small independent units, like Mehrano sanctuary in Khairpur or the wildlife sanctuary in Naltar housing a single young female snow leopard. We in no way can house these gentle beasts which need to walk for miles with their herds and wander free like they do in Addo Elephant National Park in South Africa or the animal sanctuaries in Cambodia, one of which incidentally has become Kaavan’s new home.

Now that the story has been told, we know that the wild animals feel the same pain as we do. They can be as lonely as we feel. Now we know something can be done about it and that we actually are capable of reaching out. I do believe we have done a good job.

This exercise has reflected greatly on the nation as being holistically considerate when it comes to hearing and supporting animals in distress, going beyond the conventional ways of handling a situation.

For many of my generation, Kaavan will remain etched in our memory as a friendly elephant with whom we shared popcorns and who would pick coins off our hands and salute. We did not empathise back then, but we do now. Farewell, Kaavan, and stay safe!

Saadia Owais
Karachi

(2)

we could not take care of Kaavan for such a long period of time, and only realised it recently that he was the ‘loneliest elephant in the world’. For years and years we failed to find a partner for him despite allocation of budget for the zoo. I feel sorry for the conditions he had to live in. We wish and pray that he may have better days in Cambodia. We will miss you, Kaavan!

Adeel Ahmed Malik
Rawalpindi

(3)

FINALLY, Kaavan has a home in Cambodia, and that is great. However, I fail to understand why he was sent to Cambodia when it originally hailed from Sri Lanka. It would have been better had the elephant been returned to Sri Lanka or sent to India. This would have been cost-effective and may have helped us improve our ties with New Delhi through some ‘Kaavan diplomacy’.

Further, India and Sri Lanka have large wild elephant reserves where Kaavan could have adjusted better.

Ravi Kumar Emani
Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, December 11th, 2020