Karachi — Activists Fight to Save Captive Elephant Madhubala

A welfare check was carried out on Madhubala, a 17-year-old African elephant, at a new enclosure inside Karachi Safari Park on October 10, 2026, as activists and international veterinarians work to keep her alive after her sister died of bedsores and malnutrition three years earlier, according to Al Jazeera.

What is happening with Madhubala now?

Madhubala and a second African elephant, Malika, remain in captivity at Karachi Safari Park, where caretakers have been photographed walking the animals through the enclosure grounds, Al Jazeera reported. The outlet's reporting centers on a campaign of Pakistani and international activists, along with doctors, trying to address the health challenges Madhubala faces while in captivity. The push follows the construction of the new enclosure referenced in photo documentation dated October 10, 2026.

How did four elephant sisters end up in Pakistan?

Four elephant calves captured in Tanzania were brought to Pakistan in 2009, allegedly through an animal trader, according to Al Jazeera. Two of them, Noor Jehan and Madhubala, were sent to Karachi Zoo, while their sisters, Sonia and Malika, went to Safari Park, a larger facility in the same city that combines a zoo with open viewing areas.

What happened to Noor Jehan and the other sisters?

Noor Jehan died on April 22, 2023, after suffering from an infected tusk, malnutrition and stress, Al Jazeera reported. Jude Allen, a 45-year-old animal caregiver who had quit a corporate job to work with Noor Jehan, described her final days.

"The day this wild African elephant rested her painful forehead on mine, and I hugged her for the first time — it all made sense," Allen told Al Jazeera. "I quit my job without a plan B."

Allen said he sang to Noor Jehan and massaged her legs as she declined, and that she died surrounded by a small group of activists. Al Jazeera's reporting notes that of the four sisters brought to Pakistan in 2009, Madhubala and Malika are now the only two remaining.

Who is leading the campaign to help Madhubala?

Four Paws, an international animal welfare organization that previously helped relocate Kaavan — an Asian elephant that spent 35 years at an Islamabad zoo — to a sanctuary in Cambodia, became involved with the Karachi sisters after Allen reached out to the group in 2020, according to Al Jazeera. That earlier case, which drew national attention in Pakistan, is credited by Al Jazeera with drawing scrutiny to the conditions facing Noor Jehan and Madhubala at the time.

What to watch

• Whether the new Safari Park enclosure improves Madhubala's documented health challenges.
• Any further involvement by Four Paws or other international welfare groups in Karachi.
• The status of Malika, the other surviving sister still housed at Safari Park.
• Whether Pakistani authorities take additional action on captive-animal welfare standards following the campaign described by Al Jazeera.

Al Jazeera's full reporting, including additional photographs of the enclosure and caretakers, is available at the originating story.