Millions are struggling with food shortages post the worst drought in four decades in southern Africa. The powers that be are faced with the immediate need of meeting the problems of the local people with the demands of conservation becoming secondary.

Culling of elephants addresses both concerns. It reduces the pressure on national parks housing the jumbos. It provides food for the drought affected communities. After all, the lumbering giants numbering over 84,000 far exceed the capacity of the conservation area. The elephants are competing with humans for dwindling resources like water and vegetation. This is a situation which has triggered the decision of culling.

Small wonder, it makes the controversial practice of culling a necessity now in Zimbabwe. After all, its conservation areas can support only 55,000 elephants. The decision of culling elephants in Zambia brings under the scanner environmental issues. Such issues seem to have come on s collision course with socio-economic challenges.

Zimbabwe has already lost lives to elephant attacks. As the drought intensifies, tensions will worsen as man and beast will intensify their competition to live struggling for resources to sustain themselves. But culling is not an uncontested solution to the problem. It may release some resources only in the short term. But it raises ethical concerns about an animal which is a part and parcel of Zimbabwe. Elephants are undeniably integral to both local ecological system and global conservation effort.

Highly intelligent and social creatures that the elephants are, there are many champions to their cause. Several conservationists feel that relocating them in areas with more abundant resources is a better option than culling.

The elephant population in Zimbabwe and several other southern African countries holds one of the largest pachyderm population in the world. It is a point of pride to local conservation efforts. Herein comes the decision of culling and together with it the severity of the drought. The complexities of managing wildlife in changing climate surfaces too.

But man-animal conflict are likely to be more frequent in this region. This would be owing to climate change exacerbating droughts and other extreme climate events. One wonders whether such situation would call for further culling. To address it, there are realistic options which are worth exploring.

Improving water infrastructure, developing drought resistant crops or developing better wild life management techniques can ensure a more amicable man-elephant coexistence. Climate related crises cannot be wished away. In this backdrop, both human needs and environmental sustainability need to be prioritised. As the decision of culling worried at the is to be implemented one must not lose sight of the fact that this is a fragile world.

Culling elephants may address an immediate food scarcity. But this measure is not an end to the problem. The present has to be certainly addressed. But a more balanced and sustainable future for human and wild life has to be ensured. (IPA Service)