You may know the story of Ram Prasad, an elephant who’d been kept in solitary confinement (as shown below) for 23 years at the Pali village temple. For years, Animal Rahat worked to improve his life, but temple officials resisted all advice. Then a year ago, a tragic incident occurred and started the wheels of change turning.

In January 2015, Ram Prasad was used in the Khandoba Yatra festival parade. The stress of being surrounded by thousands of people chanting and banging drums constantly and then having colored powder thrown into his eyes caused him to run amok. In the frenzy, he crushed a woman to death and injured three other people. We warned officials that this would happen again if he weren’t released to a sanctuary.

For the next 10 months—every day and night of which poor Ram was tightly chained and unable to walk—we worked behind the scenes. We eventually got temple officials to sign a statement that they couldn’t care for an elephant properly, and then government authorities approved a transfer. We weren’t involved in that transfer, but it finally happened, and we’re celebrating the fact that Ram Prasad—whose name has now been changed to avoid problems with angry templegoers and other agitators—is finally in a sanctuary.

The next problem was that the temple sought to obtain a baby elephant to replace this tortured soul. We’re delighted to report that we appear to have prevented any such acquisition. Fingers crossed that this sticks.

Through the generosity of our kind supporters, the good work of Animal Rahat grows stronger and even more influential each month. Thank you so much for caring about this vital program. Please keep us strong.