Botswana condemned for slaughtering 23 elephants for independence celebrations

Animal rights activists have criticised Botswana's decision to authorise the killing of 23 elephants to provide meat for independence celebrations.

The southern African country, home to the world's largest elephant population, is holding nationwide festivities on Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of independence from Britain.

A licence issued by the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, seen by local media, authorises the hunting of 23 elephants and other wild animals for "complimentary purposes".

The Botswana-based Elephant Protection Society warns the decision could undermine conservation, with its chairman Oaitse Nawa telling the BBC elephants needed greater protection.

He warned that slaughtering elephants for celebratory feasting could encourage poaching by creating the impression that killing elephants is acceptable when sanctioned by government.

"Elephants have lost their social structures because they are always being pushed from one place to another by gunshots," Nawa said.

Several social media users in the country have also expressed concerns about eating the game meat amid an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease, which has prompted authorities to impose measures to contain its spread.

Tshenatshe Monwela, an elder in Maun, a tourism town in north-western Botswana told local media that his community should have received buffalo instead.

He argued that elephants had particular cultural and ecological significance and that Botswana's historic role in protecting the country's wildlife and livestock should have been recognised in the government's allocation of meat for the anniversary celebrations.

Botswana's government has organised a series of events to mark the country's diamond jubilee, including a carnival in the capital, Gaborone, as well as cultural performances, concerts and sporting events.

The game meat is expected to be served as part of the traditional feasting associated with the Independence Day celebrations.

The 23 elephants were allocated in eight districts across the country.

It was not immediately clear how many of the animals had been killed by Wednesday morning. The BBC has asked the government for comment.

But local media published images from different parts of Botswana showing residents gathering around elephant carcasses, some with knives in hand and sharing the meat.

In Chobe, a wildlife-rich district in northern Botswana near the borders with Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, a local MP raised concerns after residents reportedly collected portions directly from a carcass at a school.

He said the system risked creating congestion and disadvantaging elderly people, pregnant women and people with disabilities, and suggested the meat should instead be processed into 5kg or 10kg packages to improve hygiene and ensure fairer distribution.

"For the sake of dignity, fairness and public hygiene, we respectfully call on the hunter and the relevant leadership to ensure that future distributions are properly organised," MP Simasiku Mapulanga posted on Facebook, attaching photos of people scrambling for meat around an elephant carcass.

Elephant meat is common in some wildlife-rich communities, particularly when meat from legal hunts is distributed locally, but it is not an everyday staple.

Botswana also tightly regulates game meat, and its legal possession generally depends on proving it came from a lawful hunt.

The decision has reignited a long-running and often heated debate in Botswana over how the country manages its huge elephant population.

Botswana has more than 130,000 elephants and communities living alongside them have long complained about animals destroying crops, damaging property and sometimes killing people.

The government has defended regulated hunting as one way of managing the elephant population and human-wildlife conflict while generating income for communities.

The country banned trophy hunting in 2014 under former President Ian Khama but lifted the restrictions five years later under his successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi.

Hunting has continued under President Duma Boko, who defeated Masisi in elections in 2024.

The government says proceeds from hunting supports conservation and local development.

Minister of Environment and Tourism Wynter Mmolotsi told parliament last year that special elephant quotas raised 15.6m pula ($1.1m; £820,000) in 2025 for projects in areas where elephants are found.

But conservation organisations have questioned whether the level of hunting is sustainable.

Supporters of Botswana's hunting policy, however, argue that international criticism often overlooks the costs borne by rural communities living alongside one of the world's biggest concentrations of elephants.

They say elephants destroy crops and infrastructure and pose a danger to people, particularly as their range increasingly overlaps with farms and settlements.

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