ISLAMABAD: Music icon Cher expressed delight after a Pakistani court ordered freedom for a lonely elephant named Kaavan, who had become the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by the US singer.
“We have just heard from Pakistan high court Kaavan is free,” Cher tweeted, “This is one of the greatest moments of my life,” the singer continued.
The Islamabad High Court has ordered wildlife officials to consult with Sri Lanka to find Kaavan a suitable sanctuary within 30 days. The court was hearing a petition of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board against the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).
The court’s verdict regretted the Kaavan has been treated cruelly for the past three decades and his continued captivity would expose the authorities to criminal consequences under the relevant laws.
“Neither there are adequate facilities nor resources to provide living conditions that would meet the behavioural, social and physiological needs of the animals,” said a verdict by Chief Justice Athar Minallah.
THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE.
CANT STOP????,????,BEING SICK 2 MY STOMACH.(Ate????in The night & Was SOOOO Sick,Still am.Can you O.D from too much????)⁉️
BUT????KAAVAN IS FREE????????
????DOWN MY CHEEKS,BUT HES FREE,& @markcowne ????DID IT????????.GINA,????JEN????????????— Cher (@cher) May 21, 2020
The outrage over treatment of Kaavan, an Asian elephant originally from Sri Lanka, went global several years ago with a petition garnering over 200,000 signatures after it emerged he was being chained at the Islamabad Zoo.
Zoo officials later said this was no longer the case and that he just needed a new mate after his previous partner died in 2012. Experts said that without a better habitat his future was bleak, even if a long-promised new mate finally arrives.
Many animal activists said he had insufficient shelter from Islamabad’s searing summer temperatures, which can rise to above 40 degrees Celsius. Kaavan has a 90 by 140-metre pen with no foliage and only limited shade was provided.
Arriving as a one-year-old in 1985 from Sri Lanka, Kaavan was temporarily held in chains in 2002 because zookeepers were concerned about increasingly violent tendencies. He was freed later that year after an outcry.
His mate Saheli, who arrived also from Sri Lanka in 1990, died in 2012, and in 2015 it emerged that Kaavan was regularly being chained once more for several hours a day.
Scores of people signed a petition sent to zoo authorities while the second petition in 2016 was backed by over 200,000 animal lovers from across the globe demanding Kaavan’s release to a sanctuary.
Cher, who for years has spoken out about Kaavan’s plight, tweeted her thanks to the Pakistani government.
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