Elephant culling ‘last resort’ as MPs warn of crisis in reserves

Deputy environment minister insists culling will only be used with approval, but MPs and animal welfare groups say governance failures and delays in humane interventions are escalating risks in South Africa’s elephant reserves

- Sheree Bega

Last resort: Deputy Minister Narend Singh says provinces will have to provide scientific evidence of why any of the other options are not applicable.

(PHOTO: AFP)

Deputy Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Minister Narend Singh has insisted that elephant culling in South Africa will remain a “last resort”.

But MPs and animal welfare groups warned that official delays, weak governance and failures to implement humane alternatives are creating the conditions that could later be used to justify it.

“Culling is one of the options but it is a last resort option,” Singh told parliament’s portfolio committee on forestry, fisheries and the environment last week. “Provinces will have to provide scientific evidence of why any of the other options are not applicable in their respective provinces.”

His remarks came amid mounting concern over elephant management crises in the Madikwe Game Reserve and parts of Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, where rising elephant numbers and drought pressure have intensified scrutiny of provincial authorities.

Committee chairperson Nqabisa Gantsho warned during the meeting that Madikwe’s elephants were effectively “a single drought away” from a far deeper ecological and welfare crisis, while key stakeholders remained excluded.

At the meeting, the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment outlined its forthcoming National Elephant Heritage Strategy (NEHS), expected to be gazetted by the end of June.

The strategy positions elephants as ecological, cultural and economic assets and proposes a framework for managing “living landscapes with elephants”.

But much of the hearing focused on whether failures by provincial authorities to implement available non-lethal interventions were narrowing management options unnecessarily.