Loneliest elephant dies in Indian zoo after 13 years in isolation

Shankar, the lone African elephant at New Delhi's zoo, died after reportedly refusing to eat and collapsing hours later, officials said. The zoo's director said an investigation has been opened into the death.

The 29-year-old had spent at least 13 years in solitary confinement after his companion died in 2001. He was one of two African elephants brought to India in 1998 as a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe to former Indian president Shankar Dayal Sharma.

An unnamed former zoo official told the BBC that Shankar was briefly kept alongside Asian elephants, but they were aggressive toward each other, resulting in his isolation. The official said Shankar used to be a playful elephant, but his behaviour changed after the other African elephant died.

In 2012, the elephant was moved to a new enclosure that resulted in him being left in solitary confinement, despite a federal ban on keeping elephants alone for more than six months at a time. He remained in isolation until his death on Wednesday, but activists had spent years campaigning that he be removed from the enclosure and rehabilitated in a wildlife sanctuary. In 2021, they sought to relocate Shankar to a sanctuary with other African elephants, but the petition was dismissed by Delhi's high court.

Activists have condemned the conditions in which Shankar was kept, pointing out that his enclosure was inadequate. They have argued for relocation to a sanctuary where he could live among other elephants.

The case has added to broader concerns about captive welfare and the social needs of elephants. Scientists have long noted that elephants are highly social beings, often living in family groups in the wild, and that social interaction provides significant enrichment for elephants in captivity. The debate comes amid reports of other elephants worldwide who have spent extended periods in solitary confinement.

The average life expectancy of an elephant is around 70 years, underscoring the potential impact of prolonged isolation on a long-lived, highly social species. In recent years, activists have highlighted similar cases elsewhere, such as Flavia, once called the world’s saddest elephant, who died in 2019 after 43 years in solitary confinement at Cordoba Zoo in Spain.

Shankar's death follows continued scrutiny of how zoos house elephants and whether solitary confinement is ever appropriate for such intelligent, social animals. The incident has prompted renewed calls for policy reviews and for more welfare-focused models that prioritize social housing and, when possible, relocation to sanctuaries that allow elephants to live in closer-to-natural social groups.