The inhuman humans
There are so many projects which are involved in saving the elephants – The Elephant Protection Initiative, Samburu Elephant Project, Save the Elephants, India’s Project Elephant. In fact, on 23rd Jan, we celebrate the ‘World Elephants Day.’
Thus given this background we were quite shocked to read that Botswana has a problem of excess elephants.
The surging population of elephants in Botswana is destroying villages, trampling crops and even killing humans. And the government has stepped in to say it plans to curb the rising number of elephants in the country, by re-introducing big game hunting.
That’s not all. The new government order will allow hunters to poach, and the culled elephants will be turned into pet food, and manufactured products like leather boots, jackets, belts and car seats.
From just 20,000 in 1970 to 1.25 lakh in 2019, there has been a dramatic rise in elephant population in Botswana.
This is really a very sad news as it means that elephants will once again get massacred and that too, legally now. During an aerial survey conducted in July and August 2018, 90 elephant carcasses were discovered with their tusks hacked off.
Many conservationist groups are using the social media to spread awareness about this, pleading one and all to help stop this carnage. The locals though feel that Western conservationists should not have any say in what they do their elephants.
Animals being killed because they are too many? What about too many crowding out the earth, the very elephants they want to kill?