RAWALPINDI: A Sri Lankan elephant who has lived in Pakistan since 1985 will soon be released to a highly revered animal sanctuary in Cambodia, confirmed a senior official of the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) on Saturday.
Kaavan the elephant’s retirement plan was finalized in an emergency meeting called by the board on July 13 after animal rights activists appealed to the federal government to provide relief to the long-suffering animal.
Once official, the decision was tweeted by Free the Wild (FTW), a non-profit established to fight animal captivity worldwide, on Friday, announcing that Kaavan would finally be released to the Elephant Nature Park in Cambodia.
Kaavan was gifted by the Sri Lankan government to Pakistan shortly after his birth. While he became an icon in Pakistan and was well-loved by the public, the conditions he was kept in increasingly deteriorated, making him look visibly distressed.
Petitions for his rescue began circulating in 2015 with accusations of gruesome neglect being lodged against the Islamabad Zoo. In 2016, music icon Cher got involved in the fight to free Kaavan, initiating multiple twitter hashtags and even performing songs for him while touring the world.
Cher joined forces with UK businessman Mark Cowne and wildlife photographer Gina Nelthorpe-Cowne to find FTW and begin fighting the fight for Kaavan, joined by a number of local Pakistani fighters ranging from lawyers to animal rights activists, zookeepers and veterinarians.
Chairman of the IWMB Dr. Anis ur Rahman spoke to Arab News over the phone about the joint effort to reach a decision to release Kaavan to Cambodia.
He pointed out the importance of the involvement of Pakistan’s federal government, saying it was “completely behind the move and fully supportive.”
Rahman also stated that “nothing could have moved forward without the explicit interest of the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court who slowly, slowly over the last one year worked hard to make this happen.”
Going forward, the government will be instrumental in the planning and carrying out of the safe transport of Kaavan to Cambodia in a few months.
Rahman told Arab News that a technical team under the IWMB had been put in place for “the relocation of the elephant to the Cambodian wildlife sanctuary.”
“We want to ensure a totally safe relocation without any harm to Kaavan,” he added.
Rahman informed that two experts, including a veterinarian from the Elephant Nature Park, would arrive in Islamabad next week to check on Kaavan and run some tests, estimating that the animal would be moved away from Pakistan in two months’ time.
In addition to health checks between now and then, Kaavan, who will travel to Cambodia by plane, will be introduced to and made comfortable with the transport crate he will travel in.
“It’s quite small so we want him to get accustomed to it and understand that he is safe in it,” Rahman said.
For Pakistan’s lonely elephant Kaavan, freedom awaits in a Cambodia sanctuary
https://arab.news/py8nx
For Pakistan’s lonely elephant Kaavan, freedom awaits in a Cambodia sanctuary
- Efforts from animal rights activists, Pakistani government and music icon Cher led to Kaavan’s retirement
- For 35 years, Kaavan was kept in increasingly deteriorating conditions in the Islamabad Zoo
Saudi charity KSrelief distributes 4,000 winter kits in northwest Pakistan
- The charity will distribute around 800 kits each in five districts, containing two quilts and winter clothing
- The program is part of a broader winterization initiative to help communities affected by harsh weather
ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) on Friday said it had started distributing 4,000 winter kits in Pakistan’s northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to help communities affected by harsh weather.
The program is part of KSrelief’s larger winterization initiative that was launched at the Saudi embassy in Islamabad earlier in January. Under the broader initiative, 22,000 winter kits will be distributed among more than 154,000 Pakistanis across the country.
Each winter kit includes two polyester quilts, warm shawls and winter clothing. Around 800 kits will be distributed in each of the Chitral, Upper Dir, Upper Kohistan, Mansehra and Kurram districts.
"The initiative targets communities severely impacted by harsh winter conditions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir, as well as selected areas of Punjab and Sindh experiencing extremely low temperatures," KSrelief said in a statement.
The project is being carried out in close collaboration with the National Disaster Management Authority, provincial disaster management authorities, the Relief, Rehabilitation and Settlement Department Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and the Hayat Foundation.
The statement said the initiative reaffirms KSrelief's continued commitment to alleviating winter-related hardships and improving the living conditions of vulnerable populations across Pakistan.
The Saudi charity has launched numerous projects across Pakistan in food security, health, education and disaster response in recent years, deepening the bonds of friendship and brotherhood between the two countries.
