SL agrees to send two elephants to Pakistan zoo

• Kaavan was rescued by international efforts and sent to Cambodia
• Pakistan said to have a bad history of maintaining elephants received as diplomatic gifts
• Kaavan was named as the ‘loneliest elephant in the world’ following the demise of its mate Saheli

By Kamanthi Wickramasinghe 

On April 22, a critically ill 17 year old African elephant Noor Jehan, ailing in pain at the Karachi zoo succumbed to her critical condition. But two days later, Sri Lankan authorities have reportedly agreed to gift two female elephants to Pakistan. 

Speaking to local media, Pakistan’s Honorary Consul General Yasin Joyia said that a request for the elephants has been sent to the Sri Lankan High Commission and that Sri Lanka will be sending two elephants, one for the Karachi zoo and one for Lahore.  

  The Asian elephant is an animal included in Appendix I of the CITES permit. “Therefore Pakistan has to provide the conditions in which the animals will be kept, confirm that the conditions will not jeopardize the animals’ health and fulfil several other requirements,” said environmental lawyer Dr. Jagath Gunawardena. “However the practice has been to exchange elephants between countries and this is a decision taken by the head of state.”   

Pakistan has a bad history of maintaining elephants received as diplomatic gifts. A classic example is the case of Kaavan, a diplomatic gift that Sri Lanka sent to Pakistan in 1985. But for 35 years, the animal spent its life in a substandard zoo in Islamabad. Since 2012, Kaavan was named as the ‘loneliest elephant in the world’ following the demise of its mate Saheli. Thereafter, global animal rights organisations and pop stars such as Cher were instrumental in securing the release of Kaavan. After a tedious legal process, Kaavan was relocated to a wildlife sanctuary in Cambodia.    Issuing a statement, RARE Sri Lanka expressed concerns over the statement made by the Consul General for Sri Lanka in Lahore. “
Pakistan has proven time and again to be ill-equipped both in terms of resources and knowledge to meet the complex needs of elephants. Saheli Menika, an elephant sent from Sri Lanka to Pakistan in 1991 died an agonizing and prolonged death at just 23 years of age. Kaavan, an elephant sent from Sri Lanka in 1985 was transferred to a sanctuary in Cambodia as per the orders of the Pakistani courts after hearing extensive evidence of his unsuitable living conditions and poor quality care. It is therefore inconceivable that the Honorary Consul General would consider sending further Sri Lankan elephants to Pakistan to suffer a similar fate. Elephants are sentient beings that cannot be considered and ‘gifted’ as objects under any circumstances. We would request Sri Lankan authorities to reconsider this request and to not send more elephants to Pakistan to suffer untimely deaths,” the statement read.