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Patrick Chitumba in Jambezi
THE Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Environment and Tourism has backed the government’s decision to export live elephants, saying the move would earn the country much needed revenue and help manage the jumbo population to lessen human- animal conflict.

The committee took a swipe at the so-called environmental activists who are against the export of the elephants by the government.

In an interview after a fact-finding mission that saw the committee touring communities in Hwange and Jambezi to assess the extent of damage caused by the elephants, committee chairperson Anastancia Ndlovu said they supported the move by the govenment to sell excess elephants to other countries.

She said the sales were meant to reduce the ballooning elephant population in the country.

Ndlovu said Hwange National Park had in excess of 45,000 elephants against a carrying capacity of 15,000. She said the development had exacerbated human -animal conflict in the district.

“Selling the elephants is going to reduce their population in the country. The activists have no idea of what we have in the country and should not cry foul for the animals which they don’t even know,” Ndlovu said.

After announcing its intentions to sell elephants to countries such as China, the so-called environmental activists condemned the move as being tantamount to cruelty to animals.

Ndlovu said it was saddening to note that the activists, some of whom have never set foot in the country, were grandstanding at the expense of the flora and fauna and human life.

She said selling the elephants would also earn the country much needed revenue.