At least 55 elephants have died in Zimbabwe within four weeks. The animals were dying due to lack of water and hunger, said the speaker of the Zimbabwean national parks, Tinashe Farawo.
In the Hwange National Park, Zimbabwe's largest game reserve, the effects of drought are particularly devastating. But a problem is also the last grown population. The park is designed for 15,000 elephants, but harbors more than 50,000 of the animals, said Farawo. The water is scarce: "We are desperate for rain."
At the same time, the United Nations warned of the dramatic consequences of the drought on the population. The UN estimates that more than 5.5 million people in the crisis-hit state of Zimbabwe will no longer have access to sufficient food at the turn of the year. Already that applies to more than 3.5 million people. Among the reasons include the consequences of the cyclone "Idai", which devastated parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi at harvest time.
But there are also problems with hungry and thirsty elephants. It often happens that the animals, in search of food, cross the boundaries of the parks and enter settlements. According to Farawo, over the past five years, 200 people have been killed in such incidents and at least 7,000 hectares of land have been destroyed.
Zimbabwe and a number of other African countries are calling for a relaxation of a global ban on ivory trade in order to reduce the number of animals and the risk to humans and their crops.
