MALIKA, a wild-caught African elephant from Tanzania held in captivity at Karachi’s Safari Park, was in the news recently when photos of her feet and videos of her hobbling painfully inside a cement cage were made public.

Her plight, along with Sonu’s, Noor Jehan’s and Madhubala’s, the three other elephants in Karachi, caught the attention of an international group for the protection of elephants.

It issued a report about their captive behaviour and housing conditions.

The Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), which runs the zoo and the park, categorically denied any health issue with Malika, calling her cracked feet a ‘winter rash’ for which they were applying vaseline with due diligence.

On seeing Malika’s ailing health, a UK-based charity offered KMC free veterinary assessment for all the four elephants in Karachi along with capacity-building and training for the keepers with no financial burden on the city government.

KMC initially verbally agreed to their offer, and two senior veterinarians were due to arrive on Feb 23, but KMC changed its mind at the last minute, calling the visit an attack on its writ.

In a subsequent meeting, KMC raised objections against fundraising to bring in the specialists from abroad, claiming it to be an act of bringing a bad name to the country.

We urge KMC to reconsider its decision and allow the experts to visit.

There is no shame in conceding lack of capacity. The true honour and prestige of Pakistan is by showing its commitment to ethical conservation and protection of wildlife.

Let us not let the poor animals suffer any longer for they have suffered enough on one count or the other.

Spokesperson
Pakistan Animal Welfare Society
Karachi

Published in Dawn, March 18th, 2021