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Contraception, culling to curb South African elephant population

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The population of South African elephants is growing rampantly. Both the government and the locales are concerned with this rising number. But, the solution? — Mass slaughter? No, not just that sounds cruel but also goes against the environmental norms.

The environment minister of the country has come up with a milder remedy to this growth – ‘contraception’ along with some culling.

The South African environment minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk also specified,

The government will never give a blank check to culling. We have about 20,000 elephants in South Africa, more or less 14,000 in the Kruger National Park. In 1995 when we stopped culling we had around 8,000 elephants. The population growth of elephants is 6 to 7 percent.

But, he also stressed that to preserve the delicate balance of nature in the Kruger National Park and other wildlife reserves, the government had to take a more hands-on approach to controlling its elephants.

True, this growth of the elephants’ population is good for attracting tourists to the parks for easily snatching a glance to the Big Five — elephant, rhino, lion, leopard, and buffalo. But, again one has to thrive – economy or environment, as their increasing number is inflicting a heavy toll both on vegetation and other animal species.

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