Daily Times

Even today, remembering the time Islamabad zoo administration was being suspected for involvement in animal smuggling and selling conjure so many nightmares we once stopped seeing after saying bid farewell to Kaavan, the Elephant. This horrendous story carries a plethora of accounts detailing the vicious mafia and its reprehensible activities in Pakistan.

Stretching over 25-acres of land at the foothills of Margallah Mountains, Islamabad zoo had become an epitome of an animal detention point since its opening in 1978, essentially a mysterious sphere, where animals were not kept but crammed into cages. They weren’t being nurtured but being put to slow deaths. While the world had plunged into the depths of oceans to save aquatic animals, trespassed the terrains of savannah to provide support to dying animals off thirst and hunger, winded ways to prevent endangered species from being extinct, Pakistani officials chose a different path: let them die in despair, agony, and pain. As a result, the death toll of poor souls at mysterious Zoos of Pakistan sky-rocketed, and honest to God, it is happening at this very moment.

I am not here to tell you stories. The incidents were real. We remember when four lion cubs died at Marghazar Zoo, Islamabad, none of the fleets of officials reciprocated to any interrogations raised by the media and general public to explain what was happening at the zoo. The then veterinary doctor cum Deputy Director Zoo had been alleged for having involvement in the deaths of animals owing to criminal negligence, and good gracious, his unscrupulous affairs were never probed. None of them was taken to task. Did he get away clean-handed? Did he manage to clarify his stance? We have no answers to these questions. I can recall when media outlets tried to seek his “opinions,” he disappeared and never responded despite repeated tries.

The inability of the Veterinary Doctors to remain intact with standard medical precautionary measures compromised the health and survival of animals whereupon most of them died and many were shifted to unknown places–sold out allegedly for millions by the authorities. The contracts of the animal-food provision were awarded to those blue-eyed contractors, who were cherry-picked by their masters. Greasing the palm was a norm and influence-peddling, trendy.

The sight of a poor animal undergoing excruciating pain was so unbearable that it caught sympathies all over the globe.

My generation saw Kaavan (Elephant) and Seheli (Cow Elephant) growing together for a long time. They bloomed in companionship and gearing for yielding offspring but the disaster was imminent. After the mysterious death of the latter–Seheli got a heart attack due to mistreatment and scalding enclosure accommodation–the zoo literally refused to arrange for Kavan’s companionship and any such effort sank into bureaucracy. Kaavane became a patient of depression while being seen smashing walls in heavy shackles. Sri Lankan and South African governments offered help but it was denied. Sensing that not much booty might come in this Elephant trade, the morally despicable officials didn’t let the process run complete and they succeeded.

The sight of a poor animal undergoing excruciating pain was so unbearable that it caught sympathies all over the globe, including Cher, an American singer, and Dr Amir Khalil, FOUR PAWS vet and mission leader. The former made consecutive appeals to the then-mayor of Islamabad, Sheikh Ansar Aziz, to free the lone elephant at Marghazar Zoo but all in vain. Mark Cowne, the representative of the singer, met the Mayor to establish proposals to shift the elephant abroad only to get the most amazing reply from the officer: “We are continuously working to improve conditions for Kaavan, the international community should be satisfied that the elephant is now in safer hands.” (the then Mayor’s response)

It only started working out when the international social activists and animal rights organisations-not the ones working in Pakistan with few exceptions-and prosecutors started raising a common protest whereupon the government of Pakistan finally agreed to move it to Cambodia Wildlife sanctuary. Dr Amir Khalil played the first fiddle in here and remained in close companionship with Kaavan until it was moved out.

“Free The Wild” team, upon returning from Cambodia, victoriously posted a note on their social media spaces: “It’s been a week since Kaavan touched down on Cambodian soil and now, happy and at home at Cambodia Wildlife sanctuary, the drugs used to sedate him are well and truly out of his system and he’s making friends with CWS staff and his new elephant friends. The big boy did incredibly well over his 4000km journey and we couldn’t be more grateful for the incredible efforts of Dr Frank Goeritz and Dr Khalil for keeping him safe throughout.”

While we are celebrating the first anniversary of Kaavan’s freedom, let me admit that Kaavan did it his way! Let me say that I am ashamed on behalf of my entire nation, on behalf of my shameful countrymen: the ones at the helm of the Pakistani Zoo mafia, their high ups, the corrupt members of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board, the CDA, the despicable rulers, all the institutions involved the onlookers and everyone who played a part in bringing more agony and pain to him. I’m ashamed, without any doubt, we’ve proven ourselves as the ultimate downgraded species of human beings, who devour vulnerable and feast on those out on a limb.

Kaavan, we, the 212.2 million people failed to contain you–the only Asian Elephant in Pakistan! Kaavan, big boy, you now roam acres of land, free of captivity, ample food, with beautiful ladies on a way to raise offspring. Let me quote some lines from Frank Sinatra’s favourite song of yours “My Way”:

“And now, the end is near

And so I face the final curtain

My friends, I’ll say it clear

I’ll state my case of which I’m certain

I’ve lived a life that’s full

I travelled each and every highway

But more, much more than this

I did it my way.”

Oh yes, Kaavan, you’ve done it your way. Stay blessed, Kaavan. Stay alive, Kaavan.

The writer is based in Islamabad. He can be reached at mbilal.isbpk@gmail.com, FB/mbilal.16