The city of Mumbai comes together for a final hurrah to the herd

The city of Mumbai came together on 24 March to celebrate the closing ceremony and the final sale of gorgeous elephant sculptures for Elephant Parade India, officially launched last year on 12 August 2017 on the occasion of World Elephant Day 2017.

Surrounded by the iridescent creations and amazing people that have made this possible, the closing ceremony was hosted by Ruth Ganesh, Trustee, Elephant Family and patrons and supporters of Elephant family including Haseena Jethmalani, Akshay Chudasama, Alex Kuruvilla, Manish Malhotra, Sangita Jindal and Vikram Goyal.

The evening was a star studded event and was attended by artists, designers and celebrities including Dino Morea, Tanishaa Mukerji, Kim Sharma, Tanya Dubash, Mehr Jesia Rampal, Aarti Surendranath, Abhishek and Pragya kapoor, Siddhanth Kapoor, Elizabeth Hurley, Manish Malhotra, Varun Bahl, Sanjeev and Alyona Kapoor, Yash and Avanti Birla, Pratapsinh Gaekwad, Kanika Kapoor, Kiara Advani and Sophie Choudhary to name a few.

The first ever Elephant Parade India has been heralded as a resounding success with an outpouring of love and support from the public of Mumbai andhas raised over 5.75 crore INR and rising for Elephant conservation in the country whilst capturing the public’s imagination.

Following the parade announcement in August 2017, a selection of elephants travelled the country at special preview events in Jaipur, New Delhi and Kolkata before coming to Mumbai. In the last month, 101 spectacular elephant sculptures turned heads and melted hearts in staggering numbers as the city of Mumbai welcomed the #helpthehathi campaign with open arms making it the world's biggest public art event.

Elephant sculptures were simultaneously sold at an online auction on Paddle8, to raise funds for their endangered wild cousins and their forest homes. The Elephant Parade India benefit auction featured a magnificent collection of sculptures by artists, designers, actors and celebrities including Amitabh Bachan, Shahrukh Khan and Abram Khan, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, L.N. Tallur, Manish Malhotra and Bhajju Shyam, winner of the Padma Shri Award 2018. Fashion, architecture, folk and fine art collided in this collection of powerful masterpieces created as an ode to their majestic endangered cousins - the wild Asian elephant.

Ruth Ganesh, Trustee Elephant Family, “Elephant Parade India has been truly supersonic. From a star-studded launch at the Gateway of India to overhearing 8 year olds talk intelligently about elephant corridors, it has succeeded on every level. We cannot thank the people of Mumbai enough for getting behind this campaign to raise awareness of India’s endangered elephants.”

Created as part of the UK India Year of Culture, Elephant Parade India is organised by Elephant Family in association with Good Earth and in partnership with the Wildlife Trust of India.Ms. Poonam Mahajan, Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha) and National President of the Bhartiya Janata Party Yuva Morcha is the Parade Ambassador. 100% of the proceeds generated through the online auction will be used to secure 101 crucial elephant corridors in India, the pathways that elephants depend upon to get from one forest feeding ground to the next.