Adding another tragic event to 2020 is the unexplained deaths of over 350 elephants in the Southern African country of Botswana over the last two months. The case is of the Okavango Delta in the northern part of the country. The landlocked Southern African country has the world’s largest elephant population, estimated to be around 130,000. Even after more than 2 months, the cause of death has not been known.
Dr Niall McCann, director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue, said that, “Outside of drought, I don’t know of a die-off that has been this significant.” McCann further said that his colleagues in the southern African country had spotted more than 350 elephant carcasses in the Okavango Delta since the start of May. The cause of the death of the elephants is yet to be ascertained.
Dr Cyril Taolo, acting director of the Botswana Wildlife Department, said that “We are aware of elephant deaths, 280 out of 350 animals have been traced. We are locating other animals too. COVID-19 restrictions have not helped in the transportation of samples in the region and around the world. We’re now beginning to emerge from that and that is why we are now in a position to send the samples to other laboratories of South Africa, Zimbabwe and Canada.”
According to a report by World Elephant Day, there are now only 4 lakh elephants worldwide and as per the World Wildlife Fund, elephants are found in a total of 37 countries across Africa. Their numbers are decreasing very rapidly. Most of these are from the Savanna area. Despite a ban on international trade in ivory, African elephants are still being poached in large numbers. Tens of thousands of elephants are being killed every year for their ivory tusks.
The Okavango Delta is a swampy and green region and most of the elephants are found here in Africa. This place is also known for white and black rhinos. There are about 15 thousand elephants here. Botswana’s wildlife is a special attraction for tourists worldwide and 12% of the country’s GDP comes from here.
