Cher Meets The World's Loneliest Elephant: Singer Appears With Kavaan After Flying To Secure The Animal's Rescue Following Social Media Campaign

Apr 22, 2021 by apost team

Kavaan, a previously isolated 37-year-old Asian elephant who made headlines in 2020 for being the "worlds loneliest elephant" as he withered in poor health at a Pakistani zoo, is getting a new lease on life now – and he can, at least partly, thank Cher for that.

Kavaan languished for many years in the controversial Murghazar Zoo in Islamabad, Pakistan, where he lived in isolation since the death of his partner, Saheli, in 2012. Kavaan's plight caught Cher's attention in 2016 when activists began posting his story online to raise awareness surrounding the appalling conditions he was living in. The singer then became an integral part of his relocation campaign, using social media to spread awareness and make Kavaan a priority for her NGO, Free the Wild, of which she is a co-founder.

"I thought, 'how can I fix this? How can I save an elephant who's been shackled to a shed for 17 years and who is a thousand miles away?'," Cher told CNN. 

According to the Associated Press, Kavaan had spent most of his life in chains and was fed a sub-par diet of predominantly sugar cane, which led him to become both overweight and malnourished. Tragically, years of loneliness after his partner passed away had caused psychological trauma to the elephant as well. According to veterinarian Amir Khalil, who works at the animals rescue Four Paws, Kavaan had developed behavioral issues, including shaking his head back and forth due to boredom. 

The campaigns shed light on the problematic conditions at Murghazar zoo, with Pakistan's high court finding rampant, systemic negligence and abysmal living conditions, which led to the zoo being closed in May 2020.

Khalil started working closely with Kavaan to bring him to better health and prepare him for his flight to Cambodia, where he would be starting a new life at the non-profit Cambodia Wildlife Sanctuary. The elephant was put on a diet of fresh vegetables and fruit and has lost half a ton while also going through training exercises to get used to the small enclosure and loud noises he would experience on the plane. According to Martin Bauer, a spokesperson for Four Paws, transporting an elephant on an airplane is no small feat. 

"Transferring an adult elephant on a plane is something very, very rare," Bauer told NPR. "An elephant transfer by plane on this scale I think has never happened before, so we are writing history here," he added.

Kavaan boarded his flight to Cambodia in November 2020 and joined the sanctuary the same month. At his new home, the elephant now lives in a huge jungle enclosure with an abundance of fruit and vegetables for him to munch on, with another three female elephants to keep him company.

"The goal is to socialize him," Bauer explained. "It will take a while because he has lived on his own for such a long time. But yes, ultimately the goal is to bring him together with other animals because that's what elephants want. They're herd animals, they always form families, and that's also what we plan for him."

Kavaan's story of his long road to freedom is told in the documentary "Cher and the Loneliest Elephant."

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It will air on April 22nd on Paramount+ before later being shown on the Smithsonian Channel on May 19, as the description of the official documentary trailer states.

The documentary will feature footage covering the whole process. It will explain how Cher first found out about the existence of Kavaan and include the long social media campaign Cher spearheaded that ended with Kavaan gaining freedom and the zoo's closure. It will also feature footage of Kavaan in his new home and explain how myriad people worked together to transport the elephant to his new home.

Despite the documentary's title, it will not focus only on Cher, instead also showcasing everybody else who was involved, from Khalil to Four Paws, who played a big role in organizing everything, as well as volunteers on the ground.

Cher continues to work on freeing other neglected and abused animals through her animal welfare organization Free the Wild. The Independent.ie quotes her as saying:

"It's not the first time I've actually done something like this but it's all been done with human beings. So it is really hard, because people now send me pictures and videos all the time, it's really hard and Free The Wild, we're working on a bunch of animals right now, but you don't get them quickly. So you have to start on all of them at one time and hope that you'll be able to talk people into letting them go to a sanctuary."

We wish Cher all the success with her future animal-saving endeavors!

Did you follow the story of Kavaan while it was ongoing? Are you excited to see the documentary? Tell us what you think, and pass this on to your friends and family members.