While many in Asia are used for work and transport, others are kept by zoos and circuses. Kaavan’s frustration also manifested as aggression, and he killed two of his keepers, prompting the zoo to keep him in permanent chains.Īround 16,000 elephants live in captivity today, including 377 in the United States. “When an elephant is making those movements-their body’s going one way, their head is going another way-you know they’re in deep psychological despair,” Cher says. He grew obese and developed pathological, repetitive behaviors-in his case, incessant rocking. Like many captive elephants, Kaavan suffered. In 2012, Saheli died of gangrene from an infection caused by her chains, leaving Kaavan alone. The two were frequently restrained and were not provided with adequate food, water or enrichment. The elephant wound up in the Islamabad Zoo, where he shared a small enclosure with a companion, Saheli. That journey is chronicled in a new Smithsonian Channel documentary, “ Cher and the Loneliest Elephant,” which will be available to stream on April 22 on Paramount+.Īfter his birth in 1985 in Sri Lanka, Kaavan was promptly sent as a gift to the president of Pakistan’s daughter. Cher, meanwhile, had no idea that she had just signed herself up for a five-year-long mission that would wind up involving dozens of global collaborators, a first-of-its kind legal ruling in Pakistan, negotiations with the governments of three countries and-to top it off-a pandemic. Cowne was previously involved with reintroducing elephants and other animals to the Madikwe Game Reserve in South Africa.
To her surprise, though, Cowne agreed to fly to Pakistan later that week. “I didn’t expect anything, but I was going to say to myself, ‘Yeah, you tried.’” “All of a sudden, I was just doing it,” Cher says. But after seeing copious calls on Twitter in 2016 to “Free Kaavan,” the “Goddess of Pop” found herself phoning Mark Cowne, a businessman she met at a party once, who she recalled had experience helping to move elephants in Africa. Cher stands with Kaavan, the elephant she helped rescue.Ĭher never intended to get involved in the rescue of a 8,700-pound elephant from a zoo in Pakistan.
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