From Palakkad to Berlin: An Elephant’s Journey

In 1951, when Jawaharlal Nehru received a letter from children in Berlin asking for an elephant to be sent to their zoo, the Indian prime minister had already been used to such appeals. Two years earlier, he received several similar requests from Japanese schoolchildren, and as a result, sent an elephant named Indira to the Ueno Zoo in Tokyo.

Once word of India’s ‘elephant diplomacy’ spread around the world, Nehru’s sister Vijayalakshmi Pandit, who was the ambassador to the United States, received a similar request. In April 1950, India sent two elephants, Ashok and Shanti, to the Washington Zoo. A few months later, in response to letters from Turkish children, an elephant named Mohini was sent to the Ankara Zoo.

“The reason for presenting elephants is that it is an excellent advertisement for India and will produce a fund of goodwill for India in the beneficiary countries concerned, especially in the minds of the young generation,” the Ministry of External Affairs wrote in a 1955 memo.

Before the Second World War, the Berlin Zoo had an elephant house, which was known as “Elephant Pagoda” and was home to nine elephants. The zoo lost many animals during the Royal Air Force bombing of Berlin in November 1943. While most of the resident elephants were killed in the British bombings, a few others had to be euthanised since their injuries could not be treated. The lone survivor was a bull named Siam, who died of an illness in 1947.

For the gift to the Berlin Zoo, an elephant calf was chosen from Palghat (now Palakkad). Dhatri, then five years old, was presented to Nehru by Madhava Ravi Varma Valiya Raja of Kollengode. She was transported by train to Bombay and from there went by ship to Germany. The calf set sail for Europe in June 1951.

In a letter to the children of Germany, dated June 24, 1951, Nehru wrote that the elephant had gone to the country to “make friends” with the children of Berlin. “Dhatri is a gift to you from the children of India, and it carries the affection and good wishes of India’s children for you,” the prime minister added. “An elephant is one of our biggest and strongest animals, and yet, for us, it is a symbol of peace. It is gentle and intelligent, and the smallest child can play with it.”

Nehru told the German children that he hoped that Dhatri, “a messenger of goodwill,” would make them remember India and Indian children.

Dhatri, who was also called Shanti, was received in July by Katharina Heinroth, who was the director of the zoo, along with Prem Krishen, who headed the Indian Mission in Berlin. A special ceremony attended by hundreds of schoolchildren was held at the zoo to welcome the elephant from Palakkad.

The Indian elephant became a huge attraction in the city, and before the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, children from all parts of Berlin could see her. After the wall was built, the zoo ended up in West Berlin.

In a 2008 feature about wild animals that were sent to the zoo, Der Spiegel wrote that Dhatri’s walks through the city were “legendary” and that she would sometimes stick her trunk into an open tram, delighting Berliners. She went on these walks with a zookeeper to keep her occupied.

Despite all the fanfare about Dhatri’s arrival in Berlin, the zoo had not rebuilt the elephant house that was destroyed in the 1943 British bombing. She had to temporarily live in the zebra section after arriving in Berlin. Reports from the 1950s said Dhatri was calm and good-natured, and so children were occasionally allowed to ride her under the zookeeper’s supervision.

Once the new elephant house was ready, Dhatri was moved there, and soon she would get the company of other elephants. She got caught up in fights with other elephants and even suffered a pelvic fracture. The Palakkad elephant lived in the Berlin Zoo for 24 years and died of sepsis in 1975. Two years after Dhatri’s death, Indira Gandhi gave the zoo an elephant named Jyoti. She lived in the zoo for 42 years before passing away in 2019.

Animal diplomacy is very much in use in the 21st century. In September 2026, Chinese President Xi Jinping loaned two pandas to the US as a goodwill gesture.