The southern African nation, which is home to 130,000 elephants — or around one third of the continent’s population — imposed the ban in 2014 to deter poaching.
But while the elephants are popular with wildlife-loving tourists, locals have complained that they damage crops and affect livelihoods.
“Predators appear to have increased and were causing a lot of damage as they kill livestock in large numbers,” the environment ministry statement said in Facebook post Wednesday.
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The African elephant — which is classified as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List — is increasingly coming into contact with humans as its natural habitat shrinks.
That has led to elephants raiding crops, killing livestock, destroying water supplies — and sometimes even injuring and killing people, according to the IUCN.
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