KMC, Four Paws differ over control of proposed elephant sanctuary

• Administrator, foreign experts visit Safari Park
• Madhubala to be transferred from Karachi Zoo soon

KARACHI: Some key differences between the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation and an international organisation for animal welfare seem to be holding up the progress on the idea of building Pakistan’s first elephant sanctuary in the metropolis, it emerged on Tuesday.

Sources told Dawn that the subject was being discussed in detail these days among top KMC officials, running Safari Park and Karachi Zoological Gardens, and the international organisation for animal welfare Four Paws which has provided critical medical assistance to zoo and Safari elephants.

The sources said while both parties agreed in principle to dedicate a separate piece of land, out of the area currently available at Safari Park, for an elephant sanctuary, the KMC wanted to have the facility under its control while Four Paws was seeking the establishment of an independent body to run the facility by local and international animal experts.

A day earlier at a media briefing held at the zoo, a top official representing Four Paws explicitly stated that the organisation wanted to build an elephant sanctuary that should be independent, having no administrative connections with either the zoo or Safari Park.

“The idea is to make a home for elephants in Pakistan according to international standards. It should be a separate entity from the zoo and Safari Park and run by people associated with animal welfare,” Dr Amir Khalil of Four Paws had said.

He also made clear that the organisation was apolitical and wasn’t here to make money.

He also emphasized that Four Paws wasn’t a transport agency and that it would not transport Madhubala, the lone surviving elephant at Karachi Zoo, to another zoo or Safari Park.

Currently, the zoo and Safari Park are headed by KMC official Kanwar Ayub under whose watch ailing elephant Noor Jehan recently fell in her pond and suffered critical injuries that led to her death.

The KMC hadn’t instituted an inquiry into her death or prolonged illness.

A source said that the KMC had no funds to build the sanctuary and it wanted the international organisation to build it. However, it wanted to have administrative powers to run it as Safari Park came under its management, the source said.

However, a KMC press statement about the visit of Karachi Administrator Dr Syed Saif-ur-Rehman and the team of Four Paws to Safari Park on Tuesday had no mention of an elephant sanctuary.

It said the administrator promised to transfer zoo elephant Madhubala to Safari Park as soon as possible. “Four Paws’ team will help the KMC in shifting the elephant,” it stated following his visit to the Safari Park along with Four Paws’ team.

Municipal Commissioner Syed Shujaat Hussain and Director-Safari Park Kanwar Ayub also accompanied him.

According to the press release, the administrator said there is adequate space in the Safari Park and a large space pinpointed by the Four Paws team is allocated for elephant Madhubala.

“There are already two elephants in the Safari park and the third elephant from the zoo will be transferred to the park. She will be kept with these elephants at a later stage,” the statement quoted the administrator as saying.

It might be recalled that 17-year-old African elephant Noor Jehan died on April 22 after remaining critically ill for nine days.

The elephant had been found to have serious health complications early this month by Four Paws’ team, who described her as an intensive care patient, requiring 24-hour monitoring.

These complications had rendered Noor Jehan partially paralysed as the zoo staff failed to diagnose her illness or seek timely intervention from experts.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2023