Southern Africa’s crops have been destroyed by the drought, affecting 68 million people and resulting in a regional food scarcity.
Experts claim that the El Nino climatic trend is to blame for the rainfall that is below average.
Meanwhile, as part of a stated three-week-ago plan to feed starving people, more than 700 wild creatures, including 30 hippos and 83 elephants, are already being killed in Namibia.
In Zimbabwe, the Hwange, Mbire, Tsholotsho, and Chiredzi areas will host the nation’s first cull since 1988.
According to Tinashe Farawo, a representative of the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, licenses to shoot elephants would be granted in those regions, and the organization would also take the lives of some of the 200 animals.
As soon as we have completed granting licenses, we will begin culling, stated Mr. Farawo.
He said that residents in Zimbabwe afflicted by the drought would receive the elephant meat.
According to Mr. Farawo, the number of elephants in the regions where the culling is scheduled to occur has reached an unsustainable level.
“It’s an effort to conserve the parks in the face of drought,” he stated. “Considering that we are talking about 200 [elephants] and that we are seated on it.
