By C K George
The South African countries like Zimbabwe and Namibia had decided to cull out 200 and 83 elephants respectively as a food item for distributing their meat among the starving people following severe drought, it would reportedly be a blessing in disguise.
Zimbabwe had decided to cull out 200 elephants and make their meat as a food item for distributing among the starving people of the country following drought, according to Agency reports. It was estimated 6.8 crore people were afflicted with drought.
Zimbabwe had selected the elephant meat for facing starvation as an urgent need of the hour Agency report said adding, Namibia had also decided to cull out 83 elephants and distribute their meat as a food item among the starving there following drought.
This was the first time that elephants are culled out in Zimbabwe since 1988.
The Agency report said that this scheme would have triple advantage of reducing the elephant population, man-elephant conflict and illegal poaching to a great extent.
In the National parks of Zimbabwe with a capacity 55,000 elephants, there are 84,000 elephants now.
The elephant tusks worth $6 lakhs are lying idle in Zimbabwe as they could not be sold out following the ban of all trade in ivory globally in 1989 by the Geneva-based International Trade in Endangered Species (CITS).
The elephant meat preparations are served as a delicacy in Mizoram and Nagaland in weddings and other celebrations, noted elephantologists here said.
