ISLAMABAD: Three foreign vets will travel to Islamabad before the end of August to examine Kaavan, the ministry of climate change said this week, marking one step closer to freedom for an elephant who has caught international attention in recent years for his mistreatment at a Pakistani zoo.

Kaavan was for years kept in chains at Islamabad Zoo and exhibited symptoms of mental illness, prompting global outrage over his treatment and a petition demanding his release that garnered over 400,000 signatures.

Elephant Kaavan takes a bath behind a fence at the Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad on July 18, 2020. A Pakistani court approved the relocation of the lonely elephant to Cambodia on July 18 after the pachyderm became the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by music star Cher. (AFP)

The capital's High Court ordered Kaavan's freedom in May and in July approved his relocation to a 25,000-acre wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia for retirement.

“Pakistan Mission in Bangkok has issued visas to three veterinary experts for health assessment of the elephant Kaavan of the Islamabad Margazar Zoo and declare him fit to travel to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia,” a statement by the Pakistani Ministry of Climate Change said.

"The experts, which are expected to arrive Islamabad before Augsut-end are namely: Mr. Srisaard Channarong (Thailand), Mr. Pratumdee Wichian (Thailand), Mr. Thomson Darrick Lome (Canada)," the statement added.

Kaavan's plight also drew the attention of singer Cher in 2016, who spent years calling for his freedom.

She tweeted in May that the court's decision to order his release was "one of the greatest moments of my life".

Arriving in Pakistan 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 but it emerged in 2015 that he was once more being regularly chained for several hours each day.