Siem Reap, Cambodia: An elephant dubbed the “world’s loneliest” landed in Cambodia Monday from Pakistan, receiving a warm welcome from American superstar Cher who will accompany it to a sanctuary housing potential mates.
The case of Kaavan — an overweight, 36-year-old bull elephant — sparked global uproar from animal rights groups, who petitioned for his move from an Islamabad zoo accused of substandard care and conditions.
His cause was boosted by a spirited social media campaign by Cher, who traveled to Pakistan to see him off.
Wearing a black face mask, the singer was on hand at Siem Reap airport and waved excitedly at the plane after it landed around 2:30 p.m. (0730 GMT).
Kaavan’s much-anticipated journey was “uneventful,” said Amir Khali, a veterinarian from animal welfare group Four Paws, adding he behaved “like a frequent flyer.”
“Kaavan was eating, was not stressed — he was even a little bit sleeping, standing, leaning at the crate wall,” he said.
Once the sole Asian elephant in Pakistan, Kaavan will be transported from Siem Reap to neighboring province Oddar Meanchey where a wildlife sanctuary with about 600 other elephants will be his new home.
“Cambodia is pleased to welcome Kaavan. No longer will he be ‘the world’s loneliest elephant,’” deputy environment minister Neth Pheaktra said.
“We expect to breed Kaavan with local elephants — this is an effort to conserve the genetic fold,” the minister told AFP.
Kaavan’s journey is the culmination of years of campaigning from animal rights groups, who say the animal’s behavior demonstrated “a kind of mental illness” likely due to the zoo’s woeful conditions.
In May, a Pakistani judge ordered that all the animals at the zoo be moved.
Upon hearing about Kaavan’s freedom, Cher had tweeted that the decision marked “one of the greatest moments” of her life.
A team of vets and experts from Austria-based Four Paws has spent months working with Kaavan to get him ready for the trip — a complicated process due to his size and the amount of food needed en route.
The elephant also had to be taught to enter the massive metal crate that was placed in a cargo plane for the seven-hour flight.
Four Paws, along with Islamabad authorities, also safely moved three wolves and some monkeys from the zoo. Currently only two Himalayan brown bears, one deer and one monkey remain.
‘World’s loneliest elephant’ lands in Cambodia, greeted by Cher
https://arab.news/n7krf
‘World’s loneliest elephant’ lands in Cambodia, greeted by Cher
- Wearing a black face mask, the singer Cher, was on hand at Siem Reap airport and waved excitedly at the plane after it landed
- Dubbed the world’s loneliest elephant by the press, Kaavan was the only Asian elephant in Pakistan
Tens of thousands flee northwest Pakistan over fears of military operation
- More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled remote Tirah region bordering Afghanistan
- Government says no military operation underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province
BARA, Pakistan: More than 70,000 people, mostly women and children, have fled a remote region in northwestern Pakistan bordering Afghanistan over uncertainty of a military operation against the Pakistani Taliban, residents and officials said Tuesday.
Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif has denied the claim by residents and provincial authorities. He said no military operation was underway or planned in Tirah, a town in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Speaking at a news conference in Islamabad, he said harsh weather, rather than military action, was driving the migration. His comments came weeks after residents started fleeing Tirah over fears of a possible army operation.
The exodus began a month after mosque loudspeakers urged residents to leave Tirah by Jan. 23 to avoid potential fighting. Last August, Pakistan launched a military operation against Pakistani Taliban in the Bajau r district in the northwest, displacing hundreds of thousands of people.
Shafi Jan, a spokesman for the provincial government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, posted on X that he held the federal government responsible for the ordeal of the displaced people, saying authorities in Islamabad were retracting their earlier position about the military operation.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Suhail Afridi, whose party is led by imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has criticized the military and said his government will not allow troops to launch a full-scale operation in Tirah.
The military says it will continue intelligence-based operations against Pakistani Taliban, who are known as Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Though a separate group, it has been emboldened since the Afghan
Taliban returned to power in 2021. Authorities say many TTP leaders and fighters have found sanctuary in Afghanistan and that hundreds of them have crossed into Tirah, often using residents as human shields when militant hideouts are raided.
Caught in the middle are the residents of Tirah, who continued arriving in Bara.
So far, local authorities have registered roughly 10,000 families — about 70,000 people — from Tirah, which has a population of around 150,000, said Talha Rafiq Alam, a local government administrator overseeing the relief effort. He said the registration deadline, originally set for Jan. 23, has been extended to Feb. 5.
He said the displaced would be able to return once the law-and-order situation improves.
Among those arriving in Bara and nearby towns was 35-year-old Zar Badshah, who said he left with his wife and four children after the authorities ordered an evacuation. He said mortar shells had exploded in villages in recent weeks, killing a woman and wounding four children in his village. “Community elders told us to leave. They instructed us to evacuate to safer places,” he said.
At a government school in Bara, hundreds of displaced lined up outside registration centers, waiting to be enrolled to receive government assistance. Many complained the process was slow.
Narendra Singh, 27, said members of the minority Sikh community also fled Tirah after food shortages worsened, exacerbated by heavy snowfall and uncertain security.
“There was a severe shortage of food items in Tirah, and that forced us to leave,” he said.
Tirah gained national attention in September, after an explosion at a compound allegedly used to store bomb-making materials killed at least 24 people. Authorities said most of the dead were militants linked to the TTP, though local leaders disputed that account, saying civilians, including women and children, were among the dead.
