Hwange National Park Laments Elephant Overpopulation - Report

The country’s largest national park, Hwange National Park has lamented the elephant overpopulation problem that has resulted in them incurring heavy costs to ensure that the jumbos get water and survive.

Zimparks Spokesperson Mr Tinashe Farawo speaking to the Chronicle had this to say about the situation:

Ideally, Hwange National Park should have a maximum of about 5000 elephants. However, we have more than 50 000 elephants in the park now. They are competing with other animals for scarce resources. Most of our wild animals are in Region 5 which does not receive much rains. We are currently sinking boreholes as deep as 400 metres to try to get to the water table and this is costly and we are battling to cope.

Over the past few weeks 115 elephants have died due to the prevailing drought according to the Chronicle.

More: The Chronicle