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Namibia is going through the worst crisis of its century and to reduce starvation, it has come up with a very unique and unusual solution. To avoid the condition of starvation, Namibia is going to cull more than 700 wild animals. There is a severe famine there, there is a shortage of food grains in the country, more than half of the population of Namibia is battling severe starvation at this time. You should understand how serious and grave an issue climate change is by looking at the condition of the African country Namibia.
In such a situation, the government there has decided to kill 700 wild animals and distribute their meat among the people; this news in itself is very worrying.
Yes, We talk about issues related to international context. A decision has been taken to kill more than 700 wild animals in the African country Namibia.
These animals include elephants, hippopotamuses and zebras. This decision was taken due to the food crisis caused by the severe drought in the country. The government of Namibia has planned to provide meat to its 14 lakh people, i.e. almost half the population of the country.
In fact, Namibia is currently facing the worst drought in the last hundred years. People are facing great difficulties in getting food and water.
Main crops like maize have dried up, a large number of domestic animals have also died and about 84% of the country’s food reserves have been exhausted. As the food stock decreased, prices are skyrocketing and a large number of people are not getting food.
In such a situation, the government has taken this big step to provide food to the people. The government there has given permission to kill other animals with elephants. Under this scheme, a list of total 723 animals has been prepared, which includes 30 hippopotamuses, 60 buffaloes, 50 impalas, 100 wilder beasts, 300 zebras, 83 elephants and 100 elands, a kind of deer. More than 153 animals have been killed so far, from which about 63 tons of meat has been extracted. The ministry said in a press release.
On this decision, the Ministry of Environment of Namibia says that this decision is constitutional and has been taken keeping in mind the benefit of the citizens of Namibia. The government says that in this way meat will be made available to the people.
Also, due to the drought, wild animals are fighting for grazing areas and water, due to which humans are also facing difficulties. In this way, by killing 700 animals, the effect of drought on other wild animals will be reduced to some extent. Usually in Namibia, there is a lot of shortage of food from July to September and in such a situation, the situation has become even worse in the current drought crisis.
The people there have become victims of starvation, this is impacting the most, children under age 5 are suffering from malnutrition, child deaths are being reported and women are having to travel very far in search of food and water, due to which there is also a threat of gender related violence, moving forward, between April and June 2024 approximately 1.2 million Namibians are experiencing evidence are experiencing this security. That is why the approach is being taken that people are going to slaughter wild animals and eat them.
The question also arises whether this has happened before as well, that wild animals have been slaughtered?
In 2016-19, all these extreme weather events were reported and this is not the first time that a wild animal is being killed. It is also in the constitutional mandate of Namibia that they can use natural resources for the welfare of its citizens.
They are facing food shortage due to which the government has taken such a big step but this is not the first case of fulfilling the food requirement by killing wild animals in this way, such a trend has always been seen in different parts of the world. In fact, wild animals of different species are hunted for food and sport all over the world. Animals like Zebras, Wildebeest and impala are usually eaten in South African countries and if we talk about Namibia, then it is currently home to 24000 elephants, that country is the largest population of elephants in any country in the world.
“Well managed sustainable harvesting of health, the wild animal population can be a precious source of food for the community”, this is the statement of the director of the Africa office of the UK, when he proposed the solution, the government of Namibia proposed this solution, the government there is also saying that it is a constitutional mandate of this place that we will use the natural resources for the welfare of the Namibian citizens.
The ministry of environment, forestry, and tourism in Namibia has described the plan as “necessary”. Rose Mwebaza– “Well-managed, sustainable harvesting of healthy wild animal can be a valuable food source for communities.”
“There is no food” zeidler remarked. “There is no food for people and there is no food for animals.”
Why drought has come in Namibia?
This, 2 reasons are given for this terrible famine.
1.El Nino.
2.Namibia’s geographical location.
So the biggest reason for this is the El Nino impact
• What is the El Nino impact?
It is a weather condition that increases adverse temperatures and reduces precipitation, so Namibia is going through a drought condition since July 2023 due to the El Nino impact
This is the debate about climate change, the debate about global warming because due to climate change, these uncertain events, which are erratic weather events, have increased significantly, a climate change is standing in front of us and we are already experiencing it, so this drop started in Botswana in October 2023 and as you may have imagined, in Angola, Zimbabwe and Namibia and a lot of people around 30000000 are affected by this drought, so apart from El nino, you can blame climate change as well and you can also blame the phenomenon of global warming.
• Namibia’s geographical location.
Namibia is the driest country in Sub-Saharan Africa. Namibia’s 2 regions are classified in IPC phase 2 while remaining 12 regions are classified in IPC phase 3.
The republic of Namibia is an arid country, which means there is less than 10 inches of rain per year.
We understand IPC as below and think about conditions of Namibia.
IPC (integrated food security phase classification) have 5 phase.
Phase 1- 80% house hold have nutrition food.
Phase 2 – eating minimally adequate diets.
Phase 3 – crisis – not consuming enough food.
Phase 4 – extreme food shortages.
Phase 5- almost no food and cannot support their basic needs.
Namibia is located in the drought-prone areas of South Africa. National emergency had to be imposed there in the years 2013, 2016 and 2019 due to severe famine. This year the drought is more severe and devastating than the last time. According to the report of the European Commission, the current drought started in October last year and it started from an area named Botswana, after which it spread to countries like Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia and became more terrible. The report also said that the situation in Namibia has worsened mainly due to El nino.This condition is eye opening for all over the world.
