Kaavan, the world's loneliest elephant, is finally going free
By M Ilyas Khan
BBC News, Islamabad
Kaavan with a caretaker at Marghazar Zoo in June 2016image copyrightGetty Images
image captionKaavan with a caretaker in his enclosure at Marghazar Zoo in June 2016
For decades, the world's loneliest elephant has entertained crowds from his small, barren patch of land in a Pakistani zoo.
The visitors would call for more as he saluted them, prompted by handlers who poked him with nailed bull hooks to make him perform for the money which lined their pockets.
Around him, animals disappeared from their enclosures, rumoured to be bound for the plates of the wealthy, while his only companion died, allegedly of sepsis brought on by those bull-hook nails digging deep into her skin.
And for years, it seemed that no one cared about the elephant's lonely fate. His wounds became infected and the chains around his legs slowly left permanent scars. He drifted slowly into psychosis and obesity.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-55060433
