The heart-wrenching images that captured the young animal’s dreadful ordeal have moved McCartney, prompting him to raise his voice to free him from the torment.

The pictures showed him badly injured due to routine beating and tightly shackled with spiked chains. He is in need of treatment for serious eye injury he received after being cruelly jabbed by his handler. The young animal is confined in a small and dark shed at a temple.

McCartney has asked the Indian Government to intervene in the elephant’s plight and has warned them in a letter, “The world is watching.”

He said, “I have seen photographs of young Sunder, the elephant kept alone in a shed at Jyotiba Temple and put in chains with spikes. I appeal to you to do what is right here and get Sunder post-haste to rehabilitation in the Forest.”

“Years of his life have been ruined by keeping him and abusing him in this way and enough is enough. I most respectfully call on you to use your authority to get Sunder out, placed in your protective custody and eventually integrated into a herd in the forest,” McCartney added.

McCartney has been an active animal rights campaigner, supporting a ban on the trade of animals’ hides and posing for photos with baby seals to oppose their slaughter.