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10h ago

Delhi Zoo’s Lone African Elephant Shankar Dies at 29 With Post-Mortem Underway

A formal post-mortem by IVRI experts seeks to establish the cause following years of welfare concerns over solitary housing.

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Shankar, almost 30, was presented as a diplomatic gift by Zimbabwe in 1998 and named after India’s ninth president, Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma. He arrived with a companion, Bombai, who died in 2005. (HT Photo)
Shankar was flown in from Zimbabwe and presented to then President Dr Shankar Dayal Sharma as a diplomatic gift in 1998. He has been in Delhi Zoo since then. He passed away on Wednsday. File image/ courtesy: X@KVSinghMPGonda
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Overview

  • Zoo officials said Shankar showed reduced appetite and loose stools on the morning of September 17, collapsed at about 7:25 pm, and was declared dead around 8 pm despite emergency treatment.
  • An inquiry is in progress with a post-mortem by Indian Veterinary Research Institute specialists, joined by the zoo’s health advisory committee and a representative of the Union Environment Ministry.
  • Shankar had been kept alone since 2012, a practice at odds with Central Zoo Authority guidance that discourages housing elephants singly for more than six months.
  • His management had drawn repeated criticism after musth-related incidents, prolonged chaining and reported chain-burn injuries in 2024, and a 2023 episode that led to sedation and enclosure damage.
  • International and legal scrutiny had intensified after WAZA suspended the zoo’s membership in October 2024; the 1998 Zimbabwe gift later drew offers of female companions from Zimbabwe and Botswana that did not materialize, while a 2022 petition over his welfare remains before the courts.