Namibia intends to "cull" 21 elephants in the dry north-west of the country where a small population of desert elephants roam In a statement issued on Monday, the Namibian Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) said they plan to cull 723 wild animals, including 83 elephants, across the country and to distribute the meat to local people as a drought relief program. The so-called cull will take place in national parks and communal areas where authorities believe animal numbers exceed available grazing land and water supplies amid the ongoing drought. The cull will include the killing of 21 elephants in an area that is traversed by a small isolated population of desert-adapted elephants. The statement however provides no scientific basis behind the killings . The number of wildlife grazers to be culled is minimal compared to livestock, thus the competition for grazing is actually low. The targeting of elephants, who are hardly mass grazers (they are mainly browsers) raises the question of whether they are targeted for their high meat yield. This could indicate that the intention is less about wildlife population control and more about supplying bulk quantities of meat for possible political ends.