A while back I saw the news that Kaavan — the elephant who became known around the world as “the world’s loneliest elephant” — had finally left Pakistan for his new home in Cambodia, where he’d be free to roam 10 acres of open space. After spending 33 years of his life in captivity here, it felt like a genuinely good ending to a story that had been in the news for months.
What most people don’t know is that I’d photographed Kaavan long before any of that global attention — back in 2007, more than a decade before he became internationally famous.
A morning at Marghazar Zoo, 2007
I’d just gotten my first ever digital camera, a Sony DSC H2, and I used to visit Marghazar Zoo in Islamabad often to photograph the animals — including Kaavan and his companion Saheli, who were let out into the open enclosure for a limited window each morning.
This particular photo was taken on August 5, 2007, at 8:52 AM — just two elephants going about their morning, with no idea either of them would one day be known worldwide.
Wishing Kaavan a peaceful rest of his life in Cambodia.