Will Shankar, Delhi Zoo's Lone African Elephant Be Freed After A Life Of 16 Years In Isolation?
The Delhi High Court has accepted a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking the release and rehabilitation of the only African elephant in the Delhi Zoo.
The plea was filed by 16-year-old Nikita Dhawan, founder of Youth For Animals (YFA).
A bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh issued notices and sought responses of the Centre, Delhi government, National Zoological Park, Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and the Animal Welfare Board of India (AWBI) on the petition and listed the matter for further hearing on March 9.
Diplomatic gift to India
Shankar was one of the two African elephants gifted to India by the Zimbabwean government in 1998.
The male elephant which was 26 month-old was named after Shankar Dayal Sharma, the 9th President of India.?
Shankar along with the other elephant, Bombai, was housed in the Delhi Zoo ever since.
However, due to an unyielding environment, Bombai passed away in 2005, and since then, Shankar is held captive alone at the zoo.
"I came across the 2009 CZA circular, which banned the exhibition of elephants in zoos. This has not been implemented and the Delhi Zoo still has three elephants. When I had visited Shankar, was in a very distressed condition. He was chained for 17 hours a day, he lacked intellectual stimulation and physical enrichment. He did not have any socialising as he was blocked off from the other two elephants," Nikita, who filed the PIL told Indiatimes.
The 2009 circular issued by the CZA had banned exhibition of elephants in zoos. In addition to this, the CZA guidelines prohibit an elephant to be held solitary for over six months.
Life of distress
She further alleged that due to his aggressive behavior, which is the result of psychological trauma, Shankar has been kept in isolation, without adequate space for it to move around.
"We filed an RTI application which confirmed that Shankar was kept away from the other two elephants. Usually, elephants need a lot of space to walk, but over here, it was barely an acre, in which he can hardly walk back and forth. There is also a railway line near its enclosure. Since elephants have very sensitive ears, the sound from the passing trains was also causing distress for him," she said.
Signature campaign
Nikita, through her NGO, Youth For Animals, launched an online signature campaign demanding the rehabilitation of Shankar in October.
The petition has received over 50,000 signatures to date and support from various domestic and international animal welfare organizations including the Federation of Indian Animal Protection Organisations (FIAPO), Blue Cross India, Pro Elephant Network (PREN), Elephant Specialists Alliance International (ESAI), Voice for Asian Elephants Society (VFAES), World Animal Protection (WAP), and ELSA Foundation.
Nikita wrote a letter to the Delhi Zoo authorities, which was backed by scientific research on why captivity is bad for elephants and why Shankar should be freed, but it did not get a response.?
Then she sent a letter to the Environment Ministry and PMO which also did not to get any response.?
Rehabilitate in Africa
According to Nikita, Shankar should be freed from chains and rehabilitated in Africa. She also said Aspinall Foundation a British Animal charity has come forward to help them in this.
"We have a support letter from a UK-based charity called Aspinall Foundation. They are very experienced in elephant rehabilitation and have sanctuaries across Africa. They have rehabilitated around 2,000 elephants to date. They have even said that they are willing to pay for the transportation and other expenses," she said.
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