More than 1,000 starving elephants may have to be culled. Parliamentarians demand answers by tomorrow (Friday). In a scathing parliamentary session on Tuesday, 10 June members of the Portfolio Committee on Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment accused North West officials of gross mismanagement and evasion of responsibility for the ongoing elephant crisis in the Madikwe Game Reserve. The crisis, years in the making, has led to mass starvation and death among elephants, extensive environmental degradation and a controversial proposal to cull as many as 1,200 of them. The most damning testimony came from Douglas Wolhurter, manager of the Wildlife Protection Unit at the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), whose presentation laid bare a catalogue of failings by the North West Parks and Tourism Board (NWPTB) and the provincial Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism. "This is not a sudden crisis," Wolhurter told the committee. "It is the result of decades of inaction. The elephant population did not explode overnight – these animals breed slowly. Every warning sign was ignored."