Elephants decimate other animals

The Auditor-General has found that failure to control the elephant population has led to an upswing in numbers resulting in increasing damage to crops, farm fences and water supplies and changes in woodland composition and structure.

Moreover, there is scientific evidence linking changes to woodland composition to increased or reduced diversity and abundance of some species, the Auditor General's report says. For example there was 44 percent decrease in the number of steenboks in elephant areas from an estimated 42,990 steenboks in 2001 to 23,992 in 2005.While there were 1,056 roan species in 2001, the number fell by 93 percent to 70 in 2005.