While amid a gripping hunger crisis, the South African nation of Namibia has revealed its course of action to combat the impending drought, which involves the slaughtering of 723 wild animals. The shocking plans have been introduced to mitigate the severe drought crisis faced by half its population of 1.4 million.
The animals to be slaughtered include 83 elephants, 300 zebras, 30 hippos, 50 impalas, 60 buffalos, 100 blue wildebeests and 100 elands. According to an official statement by the Ministry of Forestry and Tourism, the killing of animals has been credited as a ‘necessity’ and in line with the constitutional mandate of Namibia where the country’s resources are to be used to benefit its people.
The drought, which has been accounted as one of the worst plights faced by the country, has been caused due to the severity of the El Nino effect. The El Nino effect is essentially an abnormal warming of the surface waters in the equatorial Pacific region which travels across the sea as warm currents, affecting landmasses and causing severe droughts and delays in cropping. This is the driving force behind drought-like situations in Namibia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia.
As per statements made by the Namibian government, the culling will mostly take place in national parks and communal areas with sustainable wildlife numbers and would be carried out by professional hunters and the meat would be distributed among the masses. While the decision to kill the animals is majorly due to the drought crisis, it is also to reduce threatening encounters between humans and animals as the absence of food and water resources may lead to a situation where only the survival of the fittest is guaranteed. The animals and humans will seek out the limited resources and it may lead to disastrous interactions which may account for serious injuries or even death.
Due to extremely unfavorable cropping season agricultural production conditions, the majority of crop producers have lost animals and faced crop failure, which has made it extremely difficult for them to restock their food stocks. The majority of Namibia's population lives in rural areas, where they rely heavily on communal land for the production of cattle and crops.
The mass culling of animals may have a positive impact on Namibia’s population as it is currently the need of the hour, however if this practice continues it will have drastic impacts on the sustainability of the country’s biological diversity and biospheric balance in the long run.
Animals in Namibia
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