SELLO MOTSETA GABORONE, Botswana — Botswana’s government authorized the killing of 23 elephants for its independence day celebrations this week, drawing criticism from conservationists and one of its former presidents.

The licenses to hunt the elephants were issued in districts across the country, with each receiving a portion of the overall quota. The elephants would provide meat for needy rural communities, authorities said Friday in defense of the move.

While African savanna elephants are listed as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, the southern African nation of Botswana has a large elephant population estimated at around 130,000, more than any other country.

Its controlled annual elephant hunting quotas have sparked criticism before, but the government has defended them as necessary to manage elephant numbers and try and limit human-elephant conflict. Botswana lifted a ban on hunting elephants in 2019 , largely because of their burgeoning numbers.

Botswana has issued annual quotas to hunt between 200 and more than 400 elephants recently, depending on the year.

The government also authorized this week the killing of dozens of antelope as part of the initiative, which coincided with Botswana celebrating the 60th anniversary of its independence from Britain on Wednesday.

Botswana’s Elephant Protection Society said the decision to kill elephants was reckless and might provoke herds to be more hostile to people they live near. “When one elephant is shot, the rest become defensive,” it said.

Elephants can be extremely destructive and dangerous , and several African countries must confront the problem of elephant herds destroying farmers’ crops and infrastructure as well as killing or injuring people .

Human-wildlife conflict is a major issue for many African countries. Other nations, including neighbor South Africa, also issue annual quotas for the hunting of elephants.

Botswana, which attracts international tourists for its rich wildlife, has a policy to compensate local people for human-wildlife conflict incidents and hundreds of cases are recorded each year.

Botswana’s elephant numbers were an international talking point in 2024 when then-President Mokgweetsi Masisi and his government responded to criticism of trophy hunting from the U.K. and Germany by offering to send tens of thousands of elephants to those countries.

“It is very easy to sit in Berlin and have an opinion on our affairs in Botswana,” Masisi was quoted as saying by German newspaper Bild, adding that managing elephants was “no joke.”This week’s elephant hunting was defended by Dimakatso Ntshebe, deputy director at the government’s department of wildlife and national parks.

“Wildlife conservation must deliver meaningful benefits to the communities that live alongside wildlife and contribute to its protection,” he said Friday.

But Ian Khama, who served as Botswana’s president from 2008 to 2018 and now holds a traditional governance role as a regional chief, said he disagreed with the move, and it created an “expectation” that elephants would be killed for future national events. AP Africa news: