New Delhi: Acting on a petition of a 16-year-old activist, the Delhi High Court has ordered an inspection of the living conditions of Shankar, an African elephant at the Delhi zoo.
A gift from Zimbabwe, the 25-year-old tusker — named after former President Shankar Dayal Sharma to whom he was gifted in 1998 — is one of two African elephants living in India. The second, Rambo, is housed in the Mysuru zoo.
When he arrived in India, Shankar was accompanied by a female companion, Bombai, who died in 2005. Ever since then, it has been a lonely existence for Shankar.
In the petition, activist Nikita Dhawan has demanded Shankar’s release and rehabilitation. Dhawan told the court that she took legal recourse after her submissions to the Delhi zoo, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), yielded no results.
The petitioner has alleged that the animal was under stress after being kept in solitary confinement.
Hearing the matter last Wednesday, a bench of the court ruled out the possibility of sending the elephant back to Africa, and asked the respondents — the Delhi zoo, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA), and the Animal Welfare Board — if Shankar could be sent to a sanctuary or if a companion could be found for him.
“We will not permit you to take the elephant to South Africa. We will not permit that. It is our property. Don’t worry, we will look after him properly,” the court observed.
Representing Dhawan, advocate Dhananjay Grover told ThePrint: “What needs to be highlighted is the court’s assurance to keep the elephant’s interest at heart. Whether it’s better for it to be translocated is a matter for experts to decide, but the high court has said it will do what is best required for the animal.”
However, multiple staffers — both serving and former — of the Delhi zoo told ThePrint that all guidelines laid down by the CZA are followed when taking care of the elephants, including Shankar, adding that solutions to end the elephant’s solitary confinement are limited because of changing laws on animal welfare.
The court-mandated inspection is likely to occur before the next hearing, scheduled for 31 August.
The Delhi zoo has a history of abuse and neglect. A committee constituted by the CZA in 2017 found that the zoo had suppressed the number of animal deaths that had occurred between 2016-2017, and that those animals had been replaced by others captured illegally.
In 2019, the zoo had admitted in court that it could not identify the exact number of animals inhabiting the zoo.
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‘Often beaten, chained for 17 hours a day’
The petition by Dhawan alleges that Shankar — the African elephant whose ears are distinctly larger than its Asiatic counterpart — “is often beaten, chained for 17 hours a day and does not have adequate space to move around”.
“Medical examinations show Shankar is not in good shape, and he is constantly displaying stereotypic behaviour, indicating he’s stressed,” said Grover.
Common among captive animals who live in conditions that do not resemble their natural habitats, stereotypic behaviour refers to repeated, invariant movements that don’t serve any function.
“Normally, African elephants cover 20 to 50 kilometres of ground, but Shankar only gets 4,930 square metres (equivalent to roughly a square with sides measuring 70 metres) to move,” Grover added.
In videos posted on Change.org, a portal for online petitions, Shankar can be seen bobbing and weaving his head — a sign of stereotypic behaviour among elephants, according to experts.
The petition by Dhawan also cites a 2020 notification for the renewal of licence for the Delhi zoo, in which the Central Zoo Authority noted that the African elephant “is kept in isolation, with its legs chained in its enclosure”.
The petition added: “On inquiry, we learned the animal is chained most of the time.”
Dhawan’s petition also includes affidavits from several vets who weighed in on Shankar’s condition, basing their opinions on videos, photos, and distant observation of the animal within his enclosure.
A December 2021 report by vets Dr Manilal Valliyate, Dr Mini Aravindan and Dr Nitin Krishnegowda found that Shankar’s demeanour indicated he suffered lameness, foot disease, and showed “signs of severe stereotypic behaviour” due to isolation.
Another wildlife veterinarian, Dr Shantanu Kalambi, said the elephant’s skin as seen in photographs “appeared dry with lesions, indicating the animal has a lack of access to mud and sand for bathing”.
‘Tried our best to replicate natural habitat’
However, Delhi zoo officials refute these claims, reiterating that they followed all relevant guidelines issued by the Central Zoo Authority and ensured regular health examinations for Shankar. These guidelines prescribe conditions for the welfare of animals, such as minimum space requirements, food placement, and steps for rehabilitation.
“We’ve provided greater enrichment for Shankar in his enclosure. There’s a pond and adequate mud for a mud bath; trees, stumps, grass. We have tried our best to replicate its natural habitat,” said Dharamdeo Rai, director of the Delhi zoo, adding that the “only time” the African elephant is chained is when he “enters the period of musth”.
Musth is a period when a male elephant’s reproductive hormones rise, and is characterised by aggressive behaviour that can be lethal to humans.
Dr Sonali Ghosh, former director of the zoo, concurred.
“It’s not true that he is kept chained for most of the day. In November last year, we got him examined by top vets, all of whom said he was healthy. We agree that Shankar is alone, the only right he is being denied right now is the right to a companion, which we have tried to facilitate,” she told ThePrint.
However, bringing another African elephant is a complex proposition.
A 2009 guideline by the Central Zoo Authority bans the captivity of elephants in zoos and requires all captive elephants to be rehabilitated and, if possible, released into wildlife sanctuaries. The CZA can, technically, make an exception to allow another elephant into captivity, provided its quality of life is improved.
Zoo authorities have tried to arrange for a partner for Shankar in the past, but all such efforts have come to naught.
“We don’t know whether Shankar was given to us from the wild or from captivity. Releasing him into the wild is not a viable option. The best we can do is care for him in the zoo, and try and get a partner for him,” said Ghosh.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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