Kaavan, the loneliest elephant in the world, will finally be released

For decades this elephant served as “entertainment” in a zoo in Pakistan.

In 1985 Sri Lanka offered this newborn elephant to Pakistan to promote bilateral relations between the two countries. After a long judicial battle, Kaavan, the 35-year-old male elephant, will finally be released from his captivity and will live in a sanctuary.

For decades, the loneliest elephant in the world has entertained crowds in his small, barren patch of land in a Pakistani zoo.

To entertain visitors, the “keepers” pricked the elephant with hooks, in order to make it move, thus increasing the recipes and the alleged fun of those who would visit it.

As time went by, the animals disappeared from their enclosures, the zoo became decadent and little visited. His only companion died, presumably of sepsis caused by hooks embedded deep in his skin.

And for years no one seemed to care about the elephant’s lonely fate. His wounds became infected and the chains around his legs slowly left permanent scars. Kaavan slowly went into psychosis and obesity.

But on Sunday, the loneliest elephant in the world will finally leave his seedy enclosure and live on the other side of the continent, thanks to the determination of a union between determined volunteers and, somewhat unexpectedly, the American pop icon Cher.

The court ordered that the elephant be moved from Islamabad Zoo (formerly known as Zoo Marghazar) to a sanctuary where it can live freely. As Pakistan does not have adequate elephant shelters, Pakistani authorities have chosen an elephant sanctuary in Cambodia as Kaavan’s new home.