KARACHI: A team of veterinarians from Four Paws, a Vienna-based animal welfare organization, will soon arrive in Pakistan to treat an ailing elephant at a zoo in the southern port city of Karachi, a Four Paw official said on Tuesday, as animal rights activists said the elephant was "dying" due to neglect of the zoo management.
Last week, video and photos of Noor Jehan surfaced online and showed her severely swelled joints that had left the animal partially immobile at Karachi Zoo. An outpour of outrage on social media compelled provincial minister Nasir Hussain Shah to visit the zoo and inquire about the animal's health.
Dr. Amir Khalil, who works with Four Paws, said the condition of the elephant was "serious" and he was to arrive with his team in Karachi as soon as he received the Pakistani visa.
“If the elephant is alive by then, we will start the examination and treatment,” Khalil told Arab News. "[We] will assist in relocation of the elephant from the zoo at a later stage after improvement of the health conditions. But its condition is very serious."
The Four Paws expert said his team had already advised the local vets and suggested that there had been "little visible improvement" in her treatment.
Ali Hasan Sajid, a spokesperson of the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), said the KMC’s doctors were taking care of the elephant.
“Animals fall sick like humans do and they are treated. Noor Jehan is also sick and she is being treated,” Sajid said, adding the city’s zoo was keeping the animal in a "good condition."
In November 2021, Four Paws experts said Noor Jehan had severe tusk infection and needed immediate surgery as they arrived in Pakistan after the Sindh High Court granted them permission to inspect the health of four African elephants, including Noor Jehan. The other three are Malika, Sonu and Madhubala, the first two kept at Safari Park.
The developments came months after Kaavan, called the “world’s loneliest elephant,” was released from a ramshackle zoo in Islamabad. Animal rights activists had campaigned against the plight of 35-year-old Kaavan, the last Asian elephant in the country, who had lived alone since the death of his mate eight years earlier.
Kaavan was transferred to Cambodia in late 2020 in a blaze of publicity after his plight caught the attention of US superstar Cher, who helped raise funds for the jumbo relocation.
