More than a year after her sister, African elephant Sonia tragically dies in Karachi’s Safari Park

More than a year after zoo elephant Noor Jehan passed away, her sister Sonia tragically died on Sunday in Karachi’s Safari Park, a park official said.

Sonia, along with three other female elephants, were caught in the wild at a very young age in Tanzania and brought to Karachi in 2009 to be later shifted to the zoo and the Safari Park.

Their welfare had remained a subject of serious concern for a long time since the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) seemed to have lacked the interest and expertise to provide them with a species-appropriate environment.

Earlier this year, according to a Dawn report, the elephant had developed a serious infection and was found to have swelling between her hind legs.

Last year, she was found to have a foot injury that seemed to have occurred due to the damaged concrete floor and persistent moist conditions in her enclosure.

The African elephant, aged between 17 and 19 years, was reunited with her sister Madhubala last month after the incarcerated elephant was moved from the Karachi Zoo to the Safari Park, freeing Madhubala from a year of living in solitary confinement.

While speaking to Geo News, Safari Park Director Syed Amjad Hussain Zaidi said that their team received the news regarding Sonia’s death at 6:30am, following which they arrived at the park.

“We cannot decide on the cause of death for now as it will only be known after the postmortem is done,” he said, adding that the body of the elephant has been secured.

Non-government members of the Task Force on Captive Animals in Sindh issued a signed statement on Sonia’s death, stating that the task force had been aware of Sonia’s condition but failed to provide the necessary treatment.

“While this news may come as a shock to some, the members of the Task Force have been aware of the issues surrounding Sonia since August 6, 2024,” the statement read.

“Despite our repeated requests, the minutes from our Task Force meeting on July 5 were not documented, nor was another meeting convened to address Sonia’s serious ailment.

“We feel that we have failed in our primary duty as a task force on captive animals and share the responsibility for this heartbreaking loss,” the statement said.

The signatories appealed to the Task Force to convene an emergency meeting to “review our shortcomings and to evaluate the effectiveness of having such a Task Force in place”.

Separately, while speaking to Dawn.com, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said that an inquiry was ordered to ascertain the facts about the elephant’s death.

The elephant was being treated “apparently for tumour” by the Four Paws team, the mayor said.

However, he said he would wait for the fact findings and then respond.