200 Elephants To Be Killed To Feed Citizens Left Hungry By Drought In Zimbabwe
A mass slaughter of elephants has been authorised in Zimbabwe to feed citizens left hungry by its worst drought in decades.
This was disclosed by the spokesperson for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority on Monday. With nearly half of the country’s population facing the risk of acute hunger, “we are targeting to cull 200 elephants,” Tinashe Farawo said.
Didactic Information Hut reports that the move follows a decision in Namibia to cull elephants and other wild animals to relieve food insecurity fueled by a prolonged drought. However, the culls have drawn criticism from animal rights activists and conservationists.
Zimbabwe is home to more than 84,000 elephants, Farawo said, around double its “capacity of 45,000,” he added.
Speaking earlier to Parliamentarians, the nvironment Minister Sithembiso Nyoni said, “Zimbabwe has more elephants than we need and more elephants than our forests can accommodate.”
She added that overpopulation by elephants “causes lack of resources” for their sustenance, which fuels human-wildlife conflict in the country.
“We are discussing with Zim Parks (Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority) and some communities to do like what Namibia has done so that we can count the elephants, mobilize the women to maybe dry the meat and package it to ensure that it gets to some communities that need the protein,” Nyoni said.
“When there is an overpopulation of wildlife in a specific park, they will then seek to go outside the park to look for other resources such as water or greenery. When that happens, they will then come into contact with the humans and conflicts begin.”
