Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages. The move will deal with the growing population of the animals, the country's wildlife protection authority said.
The environment minister told parliament there were "more elephants than needed" in Zimbabwe. The government has instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Service (ZimParks) to begin the culling process, the Guardian reported.
The 200 elephants will be shot in areas where human incidents have been reported, including Hwange, home to Zimbabwe's largest nature reserve, ZimParks director-general Fulton Mangwania explained.
“We are discussing with ZimParks and some communities to do something similar to what Namibia did. Let's kill the elephants and mobilize the women to dry the meat, pack it and make sure it gets to some communities that need protein," Zimbabwe's Environment Minister Sithembiso Nyoni told VOA:
Zimbabwe is home to around 100,000 elephants - the second largest population in the world after Botswana.
Thanks to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of the animals, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last slaughtered elephants in 1988.
Neighboring Namibia said this month it had already killed 160 wild animals as part of a planned cull of more than 700, including 83 elephants, to deal with its worst drought in decades.
Zimbabwe and Namibia are among a number of countries in southern Africa that have declared states of emergency because of the drought.
The United Nations estimates that about 42 percent of Zimbabweans live in poverty, and authorities say that about 6 million people will need food aid during the period from November to March, when food is at its most scarce. | BGNES
