Elephant Noor Jehan battling to survive as next 72 hours termed ‘important’

The ailing elephant at the Karachi Zoo, Noor Jehan, is striving for survival and local and international veterinarians are closely monitoring her health.

“After a really thorough and exhausting two days and a great joint effort from the team on site, our FOUR PAWS team is supervising and monitoring the actions remotely. Dr Amir Khalil sees that she is still fighting and not giving up,” Four Paws, an international animal welfare organisation, updated on its official account on Twitter.

Earlier, Karachi Zoo Director Kunwar Ayub said in a statement that the next 72 hours were more important for Noor Jehan. The medical team is trying to help Noor Jehan with vitamin doses so that she could stand.

Worries about the 17-year-elephant’s health grew after she fell in a pond on Thursday in a small enclosure. After the fall, recommended lifting Noor Jehan with a crane, ropes and belts. She has since been lying visibly weak and exhausted with limited motion on a mound of sand, propped up against the only tree inside the enclosure.

Noor Jehan is suffering from a huge hematoma, or pool of clotted blood, inside her abdomen in addition to intestinal issues. Four Paws member Dr Amir Khalil had said during his visit to treat her last week. The veterinarian from Egypt had then given the elephant a strong chance of survival.

Khalid Hashmi was removed as director of the Karachi Zoo on April 8 over complaints of negligence.

On Saturday, Minister for Local Government Syed Nasir Hussain Shah visited the Karachi Zoological Gardens and inquired after the health of the 17-year-old elephant.

He said that he had directed the Karachi administrator and the zoo director to bring resources under use for the treatment of Noor Jehan.

Sindh chief minister’s special assistant Faraz Lakhani, CM’s coordinator Shahzad Memon and other officials were also present on the occasion.

The health condition of Noor Jehan, he said, was continuously worrisome, and the zoo administration had termed the elephant an ICU patient. For the better care of the elephant, he said, a seven-member team of the livestock department had been deployed at the zoo.

The provincial minister said they had requested the international team of vets of Four Paws to again visit the Karachi Zoo. He asked the zoo director to procure medicines and experts from whatever part of the world they needed to. He said that there was no dearth of funds for the treatment of Noor Jahan and no negligence would be tolerated in this regard.

Shah said that the zoo administration was looking after Noor Jehan round the clock and they were in full coordination with the Four Paws team. He said Aseefa Bhutto and Bakhtawar Bhutto had issues directives for taking good care of the elephant.

He said that it was the responsibility of the Sindh government to address any issue with the health of the elephant.

The minister said they never supported martial law as they were all democratic people. He said that Imran Khan suspended the assemblies to create unrest in the country.