UPDATE #12: On Tuesday, November 23, 2021, The Indian Express, a leading publication in India, carried an editorial view on Shankar and his sad entry into a lifetime of captivity as the two year old was presented as a diplomatic gift from Zimbabwe to India in 1998.

The thought piece explains how India "after Independence, a nation without economic heft turned elephants into symbols of soft power", and referred to some eye-opening examples of this sad development- "Under Nehru, baby elephants were dispatched as 'messengers of affection from the children of India' to several countries. For designing an ash tray for Air India, the Spanish artist Salvador Dali asked for — and got — an elephant for his garden in Barcelona".

We are glad that Shankar's story and our petition has triggered some intellectual thinking around anthropocentrism, as we, the human race, have a real and urgent need to do some soul searching with respect to our relationship with our fellow species, the non-human animals.