News Mania Desk/Sohom Chatterjee/6th September 2024
Namibia has decided to slaughter 723 wild animals, as reported by the New York Times, due to the shortage of food as a result of the ongoing drought which is being considered as the worst drought of the century. 1.4 million people, nearly half of the country’s 3 million population, are affected by this hunger crisis.
This decision to cull the animals is taken to provide food to the people affected and also to reduce the risk of any dangerous human-wildlife encounter. Their plan includes butchering 300 zebras, 30 hippos, 50 impalas, 60 buffaloes, 100 blue wildebeest, and 100 elands (a type of antelope). The Ministry of Environment, Forestry, and Tourism in Namibia describes this decision as “necessary” which also aligns with their constitutional duty to use natural resources for the benefit of the citizens.
Harvesting and hunting wild animals for food is a natural practice that has existed throughout human history. While commenting on this, the director of the United Nations Environment Programme’s Africa Office, Rose Mwebaza said, “Well-managed, sustainable harvesting of healthy wild animal populations can be a valuable food source for communities.”
The southern region of the African continent is heavily impacted by the scarcity of rain. In June, the UN World Food Program acknowledged that over 30 million people in that region are affected. Juliane Zeidler, country director of the World Wildlife Fund in Namibia, commented on the severity of the situation, “There is no food. There is no food for people and there is no food for animals.”
The UN recognised the significance of the situation as they highlighted the fact that almost 84% of Namibia’s food resources had been exhausted by last week.
