By Uzma Zafar
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday directed to shift all animals in the Marghazar zoo to sanctuaries within a month, particularly the pachyderm Kaavan.
Starting with a hadith from Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) regarding the treatment of animals, the 67-page written verdict by IHC Chief Justice Athar Minallah clubbed three petitions together. The first was related to the relocation of seized Brown Bear, relocation of Kaavan, the elephant to a sanctuary and handing over the zoo from the Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC) to the Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) and stopping the shooting of stray dogs as a mechanism to control their population. Chief Justice Minallah said that 878 non-human species were being held in captivity in the zoo.
On Kavaan, the verdict read that the elephant had endured much pain in the ill-equipped zoo for a very long time now and that this should end. It directed the IWMB to move the elephant to a sanctuary either in the country or approach the elephant’s birth country of Sri Lanka through it’s high commission in Islamabad so that he can be taken care of properly. CJ Minahllah instructed the same for other animals in the zoo as well.
The court remarked that the control of the zoo was handed over to the IMC and later to the Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC) when the former proved that it neither had the resources, the capacity or the will to safeguard the animals. However, the MoCC did not keep its word either.
“Except for the petitioner board (IWMB) and some passionate and dedicated private individuals including the counsels for the petitioners, others appeared to be more interested in gaining control of the management rather than securing the wellbeing of the animals,” the order read.
Raising the question that “whether the animals, i.e. non-human living creatures, have independent rights or, is there a duty on the part of the human race, through the state and its public functionaries, to protect, preserve and conserve such species,” the court deemed it as illegal and unethical to confine animals in a zoo that was short of facilities.
The court directed the government to form a board under the IWMB chairman for making arrangements to move the animals to the sanctuaries in six days. Further, the IHC ordered IWMB to take control of the Marghazar zoo. Bringing in any new animals to the zoo was banned by the court until an international inspection agency declares it fit for keeping the animals. Moreover, the government has recommended to include a chapter on animal welfare in its curriculum of Islamic Studies for matriculation students.
Music icon Cher marked “ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE” Thursday after a Pakistani court ordered freedom for a lonely elephant named Kaavan, who had become the subject of a high-profile rights campaign backed by the US singer. “WE HAVE JUST HEARD FROM PAKISTAN HIGH COURT KAAVAN IS FREE,” Cher tweeted, adding a string of emojis and saying she felt “SICK”. “THIS IS ONE OF THE GREATEST MOMENTS OF MY LIFE,” the effusive singer continued.
The Islamabad High Court has ordered wildlife officials to consult with Sri Lanka to find Kaavan a “suitable sanctuary” within 30 days, tweeted the Friends of Islamabad Zoo, which described itself as a group of citizens concerned about animal welfare at the zoo. Outrage over treatment of Kaavan, an Asian elephant originally from Sri Lanka, went global several years ago with a petition garnering over 200,000 signatures after it emerged he was being chained at the Islamabad Zoo in Pakistan’s leafy capital.
Zoo officials later said this was no longer the case, and that he just needed a new mate after his previous partner died in 2012. But experts have told The Daily Mail previously that without a better habitat his future was bleak, even if a long-promised new mate finally arrives. His behaviour — including signs of distress such as bobbing his head repeatedly — demonstrates “a kind of mental illness”, Safwan Shahab Ahmad of the Pakistan Wildlife Foundation told AFP in 2016.
Activists said he had insufficient shelter from Islamabad’s searing summer temperatures, which can rise to above 40 degrees Celsius (100 Fahrenheit). Asian elephants can roam thousands of kilometres through deep tropical and subtropical forests, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In contrast, Kaavan’s 90 by 140 metre (100 by 150 yard) pen had almost no foliage, and only limited shade was provided.
Arriving 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, but he was freed later that year after an outcry. His mate Saheli, who arrived also from Sri Lanka in 1990, died in 2012, and in 2015 it emerged that Kaavan was regularly being chained once more — for several hours a day.
Scores of people signed a petition sent to zoo authorities and Pakistan’s then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in protest. A second petition circulated in 2016 and backed by over 200,000 animal-lovers from across the globe demanded Kaavan’s release to a sanctuary. Cher, who for years has spoken out about Kaavan’s plight, tweeted her thanks to the Pakistani government, adding “it’s so emotional for us that I have to sit Down”.
