At last,
the Kaavan elephant will leave the chains behind.
It will be this Sunday when this 32-year-old grayish pachyderm with yellow flecks regains his precious freedom after decades confined in a small enclosure.
Depressed, with stress and behavior problems, and with injuries to his legs from the chains.
This is how Kaavan spent his last years, especially after the death of his partner Saheli, in 2012. The one known as
the world's loneliest elephant
was a gift from the Government of Sri Lanka and was the star of the Islamabad Zoo (Pakistan).
Now, Kaavan will start a new life on the other side of the continent thanks to pressure from activists and the help of Cher.
The American actress and singer and co-founder of Free the Wild, a wildlife protection charity, learned about the dire conditions Kaavan was living in in 2016 and
hired a legal team to try to free the elephant.
Something that will be a reality tomorrow Sunday.
The specialist, who has studied Kaavan for the past 23 years, reported that the animal's condition was "miserable": it suffers from depression, stress and behavioral abnormalities due to loneliness, lack of space and chains.
The enclosure where
the animal has lived all this time occupies an area of 90 by 140 meters,
has no trees and what little shade there is is provided by a small building with a broken roof in a city where 40 degrees are easily exceeded in summer .
However, Bilal, Kaavan's keeper for the past 28 years, has always argued that the animal just needed another companion to regain its spirits.
"It makes no sense for them to send him abroad. It would be an insult to Sri Lanka. It is better if they bring him a companion and fix his compound a bit."
The keeper acknowledges that the animal was chained for a long time after Saheli's death because it developed unpredictable and sometimes violent behavior, but claims that now it is only put in chains when it is cleaned.
However, numerous protests by activists around the world and pressure from social media have achieved what seemed impossible, that Kaavan can finally live a life in freedom
in a shrine in Cambodia.
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