Delhi zoo’s only African elephant Shankar died of heart failure: What its life in isolation teaches us

The arena was Shankar’s home for most of his life. The African bull, captured from the wild, arrived in Delhi in 1998 as a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe. It came with Vimbai, a female African elephant — but Vimbai died in 2001. For more than a decade, Shankar remained in solitary confinement.

Over the years, the Delhi Zoo made multiple attempts to find Shankar a companion. In 2010, letters were sent to parks in Africa requesting either a mate for Shankar or to take him back, but yielded no results. The zoo continued to house him separately, away from its two Asian elephants, while occasionally allowing visual contact and supervised walks to provide limited social interaction.

On the night of September 17, Shankar’s long and lonely watch ended abruptly when it collapsed in its enclosure. It was around 30 years old.

Zoo director, Dr Sanjeet Kumar, told The Indian Express on Saturday that preliminary findings suggest the elephant died of acute heart failure. “Other organs were visibly normal,” he said, adding that the cause of the failure will only be confirmed after the final post-mortem report from the Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Bareilly. A probe into the death is ongoing.

Acute heart failure in elephants is relatively uncommon but not unheard of. Several studies have documented such cases in both captive and free-ranging populations. Viral infections, environmental stressors or underlying health conditions are known contributing factors.

“Shankar’s death is sadly not unexpected,” said a source in the zoo. “Long years of isolation, construction activities, rodent infestations, and even the present closure due to bird flu created stressful conditions for all animals here.”

Over the years, the Delhi Zoo undertook a number of enrichment measures to improve Shankar’s quality of life. His diet was carefully managed with green fodder, tree branches, dry fodder, fruits, rice, mustard oil, salt, and turmeric, while carbohydrate intake was reduced at times to manage weight. Enrichment devices such as large rubber tyres, log piles and interactive feeders were provided to encourage foraging.

In October 2024, the zoo faced scrutiny from the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA), which suspended its membership for six months over concerns about Shankar’s treatment during musth. A chain burn injury sustained by the elephant during this period and subsequent tranquilisation raised allegations of ill-treatment.

After this, experts from Vantara, an animal shelter run by the Reliance Foundation in Gujarat, visited the zoo to advise on Shankar’s welfare and musth management.

Earlier this year, as per the NGO Wildlife SOS, its Deputy Director of Veterinary Services, Dr Ilayaraja Selvaraj, also visited and advised Delhi zoo authorities that a cemented enclosure should be avoided for long durations. Instead, accessibility to mud beds for rest should be encouraged.

While these measures offered some relief, experts have noted that no enrichment device could substitute for the stress-reducing effect of social groups.

A recent study published in the Science Direct journal found that social contact is the ultimate elephant enrichment. “Even the best enrichment devices inevitably offer a very limited number of responses…”

A 2022 study published in the Journal of Zoological and Botanical Gardens found that bull elephants housed in groups exhibited significantly fewer stress behaviours, such as pacing and head-bobbing, than those kept alone.

Over the years, many conservationists and activists battled for the release of Shankar, with the most prominent one being a legal battle by a teenager. In 2021, Nikitha Dhawan moved a petition in the Delhi High Court seeking Shankar’s release. The court disposed of the petition and recommended approaching a Supreme Court-appointed committee.

A committee with representatives from the Central Zoo Authority, Animal Welfare Board of India and the Project Elephant Division of the Environment Ministry had then recommended that “efforts be made to acquire at least two unrelated, compatible females (one adult and one sub-adult) with one sub-adult male”. But this was again questioned by other experts and activists due to space constraints, forcing of natural selection, logistical challenges, among others.

Procuring funding costs for transportation and other expenses for bringing in an adult or a sub-adult African elephant has been a major hurdle, too. In 2023, the then zoo director, Aakansha Mahajan, had said a proposal was sent to the Ministry. However, no arrangement was made later.

Current Delhi zoo director, Dr Kumar, also pegged the cost of transportation expenses at around Rs 1 crore, as they attempted to make arrangements with the Botswana government. There were also talks with the Zimbabwe government about providing a female elephant.

Both the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA) Best Practice Guidelines for elephants (2020) and India’s Central Zoo Authority guidelines require efforts to prevent prolonged single housing and to secure compatible companions for isolated individuals.

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