A 50-year-old elephant revered as an icon in Namibia was shot dead this week — sparking uproar from local conservation groups who claimed the animal was killed for no good reason.
The male elephant, popularly known as Voortrekker, was a part of the rare Ugab desert-adapted herd, was killed last week in the Omatjete area, 140 miles from the coastal town of Swakopmund — by a government-appointed hunter who paid more than $8,500 to take down the beast.
Authorities had labeled Voortrekker, which means “pioneer” in Afrikaans, a “problem-causing animal.”
“It’s unfortunate that the elephant was put down but we were left with no other alternative after this specific animal continued to cause damages to property in the area,” Romeo Muyunda, the country’s Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) spokesman, told Reuters on Tuesday.
The ministry granted the permit for Voortrekker to be shot because the government feared that local farmers would act on their threat to kill elephants that they said had been wreaking havoc on their properties.
“It was better for us to do it this way than to ignore it, and allow the community to take the law into their own hands and destroy all the elephants,” Muyunda added.
But local conservancies blasted the killing, saying this herd didn’t enter human settlements.
“We understand that complaints have been received from communities living in the Omatjete area. The Ugab west population of desert elephants do not cross into those communities,” the Ugab Concerned Conservancies said in a statement. “These elephants are our resources, and we object to them being hunted for problems caused by different populations of elephants.”
Tourists shelled out lots of money to see Voortrekker, and similar elephants, according to Namibian media.
The death comes four years after American dentist Walter James Palmer killed Cecil, the most famous lion in Zimbabwe, sparking international outrage.
With Post wires