India’s loneliest Elephant dies after two decades of solitary confinement

India’s loneliest African elephant has died of a rare rodent-borne virus after spending over two decades of its life in isolation at a zoo in Delhi.

The autopsy report of the 29-year-old animal revealed that it died due to encephalomyocarditis virus (EMCV) in September. This virus results in heart and brain inflammation, leading to death.

Dr Sanjeet Kumar, the director of the zoo, said that EMCV commonly affects pigs but there were some cases in European zoos where it affected other animals as well.

He added, “The most-mortem report of the elephant was positive for EMCV.”

The African bull elephant was a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe to then-Indian President Shankar Dayal Sharma in 1998. 

His companion died in 2001 and since then, the elephant lived in isolation for over two decades.

The elephant, named Shankar, was shifted to an Asian elephant enclosure but the arrangement didn’t work out.

The government imposed a ban keeping elephants in zoos in 2009. However, Shankar remained confined in a newly built enclosure.

Despite continuous criticism from conservation activists, the authorities didn’t budge to move Shankar from the zoo to a sanctuary.