{"id":105083,"date":"2026-04-08T12:55:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/?p=105083"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:55:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T10:55:09","slug":"urgent-action-required-for-rising-elephant-populations-in-kzn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/urgent-action-required-for-rising-elephant-populations-in-kzn\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent action required for rising elephant populations in KZN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
\n8 April 2026 | 12:54 CAT
\n2-minute read<\/p>\n

\"\"

Image: Sameera Casmod<\/p><\/div>\n

KwaZulu-Natal’s conservation authorities\u00a0are sounding the alarm over rising elephant populations in key reserves, warning of an\u00a0ecological crisis if urgent action is not taken. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has called for the relocation\u00a0of hundreds of elephants, but there are concerns that culling may become unavoidable.<\/p>\n

In various reserves across KZN, elephant populations have exceeded the parks’ ecological carrying capacity, necessitating the removal of over 1 000 elephants, particularly from Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.<\/p>\n

In an interview<\/a> on Radio Islam International, Ecologist and Scientific Services Executive Manager at Ezemvelo, Ian Rushworth noted that while the increase in elephant populations signifies successful conservation efforts, the numbers are now too high.<\/p>\n

\u201cElephant conservation is one of the success stories of South Africa where\u00a0we’ve gone from elephants being almost entirely eradicated from the country to a point where\u00a0they’ve been restocked in multiple areas and numbers are now increasing to the point, unfortunately,\u00a0where they’re starting to have negative impacts on the habitats in those protected areas\u2026 and it has become necessary to\u00a0manage numbers,\u201d Rushworth said.<\/p>\n

The province is a major hub for elephant conservation and is home to an estimated 2\u00a0862 elephants across 22 different properties, 60% of which are at full capacity.<\/p>\n

Rushworth noted that efforts to reduce the growth rate of elephant populations in KZN have been in place for more than 10 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the KwaZulu-Natal wildlife elephant populations\u00a0have been contraceptive for more than a decade and that has definitely reduced the growth rate – that reduces the impact. We’ve been also done a lot of work to look at expanding elephant range\u00a0to increase the amount of habitat available for the growing populations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

For instance, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park has undergone a 3\u00a0100 hectare expansion through a partnership with mFulaWozi Wilderness area to accommodate the growing elephant population.<\/p>\n

Other initiatives include trans-frontier conservation initiatives to allow for movement of elephants across international borders. The Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area (LTFCA)\u00a0is a trilateral agreement established in 2000 between Eswatini, Mozambique, and South Africa to link nature reserves, promote biodiversity, and foster eco-tourism across borders. The 11\u00a0169 square kilometre initiative connects protected areas, including South Africa’s Tembe Elephant Park and Songimvelo Nature Reserve.<\/p>\n

Conservation authorities first try to relocate animals before resorting to culling them if population numbers exceed the limit. However, elephants require spacious reserves with the right vegetation that are adequately fenced, and there are a limited number of reserves in South Africa that meet these requirements.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately with nearly 100 properties\u00a0across the country all looking to find homes for extra elephants, there’s a lot of competition\u00a0between properties and sometimes we lose out to other properties that are able to\u00a0find homes for their elephants, including Kruger Park that obviously has a lot of elephants,\u201d Rushworth said.<\/p>\n

While the priority is to move more than 900 elephants to other areas,\u00a0over 100 may face culling due to extreme habitat damage.<\/p>\n

The majority of removals are planned for Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (650), followed by Ithala Game Reserve (170), Tembe Elephant Park (120), uMkhuze Game Reserve (50), and iSimangaliso Wetland Park (60).<\/p>\n

Listen<\/a> <\/strong>to the full interview with Ian Rushworth on Sabaahul Muslim, presented by Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za 8 April 2026 | 12:54 CAT 2-minute read KwaZulu-Natal’s conservation authorities\u00a0are sounding the alarm over rising elephant populations in key reserves, warning of an\u00a0ecological crisis if urgent action is not taken. Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has called for the relocation\u00a0of hundreds of elephants, but there are concerns that culling may become unavoidable. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":105084,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[28,4995],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-105083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest-news","category-south-africa"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/elephant-scaled.jpeg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pc0QIf-rkT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 16:51:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105083"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105083\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105085,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105083\/revisions\/105085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radioislam.org.za\/a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}