The conflicted story of the world’s loneliest elephant named Kaavan has his fair share of human wrongdoing, but fortunately, it also includes empathy, love, and even celebrity buzz with a happy ending.
Elephants Emotional Intelligence
We humans, rulers of this planet, tend to believe that we are the only ones capable of complex emotions and feelings. Perhaps that is why we had come this far, wiping out other species and their environments. However, I believe we also can recognize our shortcomings and work towards making things better for every single living organism on this planet.
Elephants are the biggest land mammals. These giants with rough wrinkled skin, floppy ears, and kind eyes are capable of a wide range of emotions. In some cases, their family bonds are even stronger than humans.
Researchers have observed the wide range of emotions that elephants are capable of. They can feel joy, love, grief, rage, stress, compassion, and altruism. Elephants can overflow with joy for a newborn elephant as well as reunions after being apart for some time. In contrast, their grieving process is deeply sad, they can mourn for years the loss of a loved one. Elephants can grasp the concept of death. (1)
The Loneliest Elephant Story
Kaavan’s story is a sad one. He was given as a token of gratitude from the Sri Lankan government to Pakistan for their help during a civil uprising. It was never clear if he was an orphan or not, but sometime in 1985, he was taken to the zoo in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. Islamabad zoo did not even have a veterinary care unit, medicine, or surgery facilities.
Kaavan was seen as a goldmine upon his arrival, his handlers trained him to salute visitors and collect money for them. They constantly inflicted pain on him with nailed bullhooks to force him to perform. They put chains on him that created scars he has to this day. A high sugar diet made him obese and he was never properly cared for.
He suffered so much abuse for 35 years, his only solace was his companion, a female elephant named Saheli. She arrived at the zoo in the 1990s from Bangladesh, sadly she died in 2012.
The official version from the Islamabad Zoo was that Saheli died from a heart attack, but the organization FIZ (Friends of Islamabad Zoo) believes that the cause of her death was sepsis from gangrene resulting from handlers hitting her constantly with an unsterilized bullhook.
After the loss of Saheli, Kaavan not only became the loneliest elephant but started presenting signs of zoochosis (abnormal animal behavior). He became aggressive and was constantly bobbing his head, Kaavan had low locomotive activity and was indifferent to humans. (2)
Humans to the Rescue
The volunteer Mohammad bin Naveed from Friends of Islamabad Zoo (FIZ) saw the need to call for help. He contacted Four Paws International (FPI), and they came to the rescue of Kaavan. When FPI arrived, the loneliest elephant was in very bad shape. Not only was he overweight but had conjunctivitis in his left eye, presented old lesions from chains, and very bad foot condition with several broken nails and overgrown cuticles.
Dr. Amir Khalil, head of the FPI team, and other volunteers started helping Kaavan in his journey to recovery. Dr. Khalil said that in the beginning, they were just standing around waiting for Kaavan to trust them. Eventually, Dr. Khalil started singing every day to Kaavan, and little by little the world’s loneliest elephant came to them, allowing them to help him.
Do you believe in life after love?
Kaavan’s story caught the attention of music icon Cher. She is the co-founder of the wildlife protection charity, Free the Wild. Cher got actively involved in the legal battle to get Kavaan out of Islamabad Zoo. To relocated him to Kulen-Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary located in Cambodia.
Finally, in the first week of December, everything was ready to get Kaavan to the animal sanctuary. Cher flew to Pakistan to meet with Pakistan’s prime minister and to accompany the world’s loneliest elephant to his new home in Cambodia.
After 35 years of neglect and abuse, Kaavan was transported in a crate and by plane to his new home in Cambodia. He arrived after an eight hour flight.
Currently, the staff is taking care of his wounds and getting in shape to soon start enjoying the million-acre Kulen-Promtep Wildlife Sanctuary that will be his well-deserved piece of paradise forever and ever.(3)
