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Dr. Amir Khalil, a veterinarian from the worldwide animal welfare group 4 Paws Worldwide, comforts Kaavan throughout his examination on the zoo in Islamabad, earlier than Kaavan is transported to Cambodia.
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Dr. Amir Khalil, a veterinarian from the worldwide animal welfare group 4 Paws Worldwide, comforts Kaavan throughout his examination on the zoo in Islamabad, earlier than Kaavan is transported to Cambodia.
Anjum Naveed/NPR
Dr. Amir Khalil isn’t any stranger to serving to animals out of actually dangerous conditions. The 55-year-old Egyptian-born veterinarian, who works with the Vienna-based animal welfare group 4 Paws Worldwide, has been rescuing animals from crumbling zoos and battle zones reminiscent of Syria and the Gaza Strip for greater than 20 years.
“We go to locations the place the logic does not exist,” Khalil told NPR last year. “The federal government does not exist. Nobody cares. And the place nobody will imagine you might be coming to save lots of animals.”
Now he can add transferring an elephant by aircraft between nations throughout a lethal world pandemic to his storied resume. Khalil led the crew that this week transferred a 37-year-old male Asian elephant named Kaavan from confinement in a decrepit zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, to a conservation park in Cambodia.
Shifting Kaavan was already a tough mission logistically and politically, Khalil says — and the coronavirus pandemic made it much more difficult. The well being and security of the crew was “the primary precedence,” he says, as they labored to shift the 5-ton pachyderm from the ill-equipped Islamabad zoo that is been his dwelling for over 30 years.
Officers and journalists take a look at Kaavan on the Islamabad zoo in July.
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Officers and journalists take a look at Kaavan on the Islamabad zoo in July.
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Born in Sri Lanka, Kaavan arrived in Pakistan as one-year-old calf, a state present throughout navy rule within the 1980s, after the navy dictator’s younger daughter expressed a fondness for elephants. He ended up within the zoo, the place he spent the subsequent three a long time “chained and mistreated,” Khalil says.
“They pressured him typically to drink whisky and vodka, even in an Islamic nation the place alcohol is forbidden,” he tells NPR.
In 2012, Kaavan’s enclosure mate, a feminine elephant named Saheli, died. Her body was left lying with Kaavan for days earlier than it was taken away. He is been alone ever since — incomes him the nickname of “world’s loneliest elephant.”
When Khalil first met Kaavan in 2016, throughout a go to to evaluate the situation of the zoo and its animals, he says the elephant was aggressive, depressed and overweight.
Not lengthy after Khalil’s go to, American pop legend Cher realized of Kaavan’s scenario. Alongside along with her personal charity, Free the Wild, and different animal rights teams, she launched a marketing campaign to shut the Islamabad zoo and relocate the animals.
A Pakistani court docket lastly ordered the zoo’s closure in Might and put Khalil in command of determining the place and learn how to relocate Kaavan.
“It was an honor,” says Khalil.
He really helpful relocating Kaavan to Cambodia’s Kulen Promenade Tep Wildlife Sanctuary, a facility of over 30,000 acres outdoors Siem Reap. “Cambodia was an excellent house the place we may construct the suitable facility for the elephant’s quarantine and rehabilitation,” he says.
The park already has three feminine elephant residents, and they are going to be vital for Kaavan’s rehabilitation and socialization, he says.
Khalil and his crew labored with Pakistani officers, Cambodian officers and, in fact, Kaavan himself to arrange the elephant for his unimaginable journey: a greater than 7-hour flight, adopted by a protracted drive to the sanctuary. Your entire course of price some $400,000, with the flight donated by the Eric S. Margolis Basis.
Social media was abuzz with photos and videos exhibiting Kaavan taking his very first steps out of the transport crate and into his new dwelling on Monday evening.
Khalil feeds Kavaan in a transport crate in November to get him used to it earlier than touring.
Aamir Qureshi/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
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Khalil feeds Kavaan in a transport crate in November to get him used to it earlier than touring.
Aamir Qureshi/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
That second “was nice,” an emotional Khalil says, “as a result of I had a particular contact and particular bond with the elephant.”
Like anybody who strikes to a brand new dwelling, Kaavan is a bit stressed and pressured proper now, he says.
“However absolutely within the coming days, he’ll really feel significantly better and calmer,” he says.
The elephant will likely be slowly launched to the complete habitat within the coming weeks.
“The life of 1 human or one elephant is so vital and we hope Kaavan evokes folks,” Khalil says. “What Kaavan did for animal welfare on a worldwide stage is vital. He deserves to be free — it is all about humanity.”
NPR reached Khalil in Cambodia a day after Kaavan’s switch. Highlights of the interview have been edited and condensed for readability.
On how a Sinatra commonplace helped transfer Kaavan
Khalil asks members of the media to keep away from a crate carrying Kaavan.
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Khalil asks members of the media to keep away from a crate carrying Kaavan.
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So, to maneuver such a large, you want numerous logistic work. We needed to begin by transferring him from such a small enclosure in a zoo the place no huge vehicles can enter, we needed to construct a crate, we’d like a crew to coach the elephant. And we have to discover a correct aircraft, as a result of some other place couldn’t take Kaavan. We wished to take the most important aircraft on earth, an Antonov, however this was very costly.
So we labored on the load of the elephant and the elephant misplaced some [hundreds of] kilograms and we had been capable of modify the crate to be smaller. This allowed us to take a Russian airplane, an Ilyushin. It is big as a result of the elephant is huge, very tall. We wanted an airplane with a giant door.
The crew labored very onerous in the previous couple of months to vary the load of the elephant, to coach the elephant for the transport field. And by some means I discovered a technique to calm the elephant by music. He loves Frank Sinatra music: My Manner. I’ve ugly voice, very dangerous, however I solely have one fan, Kaavan, however that is it for me.
On placing an elephant on a aircraft
A crate carrying Kaavan on the Islamabad Worldwide Airport.
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A crate carrying Kaavan on the Islamabad Worldwide Airport.
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You want meals for the elephant within the aircraft. If the elephant strikes one step ahead or again, the pilot is not going to be joyful as a result of the airplane will transfer. We had been supported by the [Pakistani] military, logistics to maneuver and provide the crane which can carry the elephant and the transport field collectively. We had a navy escort to the airport by the military as a result of if there was an accident, it might be a catastrophe.
We succeeded in bringing him into the aircraft and he was calm. We needed to feed him now and again, I needed to sing to him. He slept slightly, however it was for him numerous pleasure.
On the politics of transferring Kaavan
Kaavan (left) touches his trunk with the trunk of one other elephant on the Kulen Promenade Tep Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia.
4 Paws
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4 Paws
Kaavan (left) touches his trunk with the trunk of one other elephant on the Kulen Promenade Tep Wildlife Sanctuary in Cambodia.
4 Paws
So it was a giant political drawback [in Pakistan] to lose the elephant, to provide away the elephant as a result of they are not capable of look after the elephant. However alternatively, the entire animal lovers agree there was no certified employees to look after the elephant. They even really helpful constructing a sanctuary for the elephant in Pakistan. However to maintain one Asian elephant in Pakistan, in a giant sanctuary, it is like you may have a giant island for you alone. It is stunning, however you will be alone.
The elephant was a presidential present when he was a child. So the president of Pakistan and the primary girl got here to say “goodbye” and “protected journey” to Kaavan. They’ve handy over the presidential present as a result of he needed to be retired.
By this week, it was politically attainable to say that Pakistan wouldn’t lose face. The elephant labored over 35 years, filed for retirement and this was nice.
On Kaavan’s new life
After we arrived, Cher was ready for him, and numerous journalists. Monks got here to bless him. After this, he moved to the sanctuary. He is in a brand new enclosure the place he’ll keep for some time and he has three [elephant] women as neighbors. And [Tuesday] morning, it was the primary time his trunk touched one other trunk from one of many women. Which was touching.
I’ll keep one week with Kaavan after which fly again to rescue two bears from Islamabad to Jordan. I am certain I’ll come again to go to Kaavan quickly. I’m joyful for Kaavan. Now he will likely be a happier elephant, and I will likely be a rescue physician once more.
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