New Delhi: Shankar, Delhi Zoo’s only African elephant, died Wednesday at the age of 29. The National Zoological Park of Delhi said Thursday he had not been eating properly for two days. A probe is underway to determine the main cause of death.
“Yes, he did pass away last night. There’s nothing more we can say until a post-mortem and probe is complete into the reasons for the death,” Zoo director Sanjeet Kumar told ThePrint.
Shankar had been in a solitary enclosure since 2012 and was even chained up for years when he began acting stubborn and aggressive. In their press note Thursday, the Delhi Zoo said Shankar was known for his “gentle nature”.
The zoo had been repeatedly warned by the Delhi High Court, Supreme Court, and even the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) to improve Shankar’s living conditions and find him a mate.
The Delhi Zoo is the only zoo in the country directly managed by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change.
“The death of Shankar is a heartbreaking culmination of years of institutional apathy and neglect,” Gauri Maulekhi, animal activist and Trustee of People for Animals, told ThePrint. “For over a decade, animal welfare activists have presented irrefutable scientific evidence and filed petitions about the psychological torture of this animal.”
The zoo said Shankar was in care for loose motion and died during emergency treatment Wednesday night, but there was no report of sickness or abnormal behaviour before 16 September. Officials outside the zoo reckon that there was a stronger case of negligence involved in his untimely death.
“He was just 30 years old – this is considered very young for elephants since they live up to 65-70. He had just reached adulthood and suddenly passed away,” said an expert closely associated with the Delhi Zoo.
Shankar had previously suffered health issues due to his solitary confinement, with PTI reporting in 2021 the chains had caused wounds on his legs. Also, being without a mate for so long while he was in musth, a hormonal state when young male elephants want to mate, meant he would have periods of excessively aggressive behaviour.
In the most recent development in Shankar’s case, the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) in October 2024 suspended the Delhi Zoo’s membership because of Shankar’s mistreatment. After this, a team of veterinarians from Reliance’s Vantara Zoo also visited the Delhi Zoo to check on his health.
“Shankar needs to be around others of his kind for his psychological well-being,” Shubhobroto Ghosh, wildlife projects manager at World Animal Protection in India, had told ThePrint back in October.
Videos released by the MOEFCC back then showed Shankar bobbing his head from side to side, which is a common stereotypic behaviour by animals when they are stressed.
Shankar’s death comes barely a month after four out of five newly-born tiger cubs died in the Zoo due to health issues and infections. Also, an avian influenza in the zoo’s birds led to the death of a Schedule I Painted Stork, and the zoo currently remains shut to visitors.
Despite repeated warnings and even the revocation of Delhi Zoo’s WAZA membership over Shankar’s well-being, some experts see his death as a sign of failure on the part of the Zoo’s authorities.
Also Read: Delhi Zoo to sign ‘knowledge sharing’ MoU with Vantara, but no management transfer, say officials
Shankar’s history in India
Shankar first set foot on Indian soil in 1998 along with a female companion, Bombai, both African elephants given as a present by the then president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, to the then President of India, Shankar Dayal Sharma.
Both Bombai and Shankar were placed in the Delhi Zoo, which is run by the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Climate Change, but Bombai died within two years.
After that, Shankar was raised alongside the Asian elephants in the Zoo, but soon they, too, were shifted away, and he became lonely. Since 2012, he has been confined to a solitary enclosure despite guidelines by the Central Zoo Authority that prohibit elephants from being kept alone in zoos.
In 2022, teenager Nikita Dhawan petitioned the Delhi High Court to find a mate for Shankar or release him into the wild, after seeing his condition in chains in the Zoo. However, since Shankar was a gift from an international country, and is an exotic animal in India, being an African elephant, rules prohibit him from being released into the wild in India.
After the 2024 WAZA suspension, both Zimbabwe and Botswana volunteered to send a female African elephant for Shankar to get a companion. However, there were no follow-up announcements by the Delhi Zoo confirming a mate for Shankar.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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