Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Yerlan Nyssanbayev, announced that scientific justification had been obtained for the mass 'culling' of saiga antelope. According to him, scientists recommend removing exactly 20% of the animals from the population.
"Today we are looking at organisational issues; I think we will announce a decision in a day or two. Science is proposing the culling of 20% of the entire population," Nyssanbayev stated at a government briefing.
Interestingly, this magic figure of 20% was already being touted in May, when Vice-Minister Nurken Shabiyev promised a record 5 million saiga. At the same time, Alexey Grachev, Head of the Theriology Laboratory at the Institute of Zoology, asserted that a 20% cull would not harm the population. Time passed, the herd was recounted, new figures were obtained, fresh scientific justification was prepared – yet the percentage remained the same. A remarkably convenient formula that seems to fit any ministry statistics.
Now, according to Nyssanbayev's current data, the total saiga population stands at 3 million 978 thousand: 2.3 million in the Ural population, 1.6 million in the Betpakdala population, and 78 thousand in the Ustyurt population. Based on these figures, the department intends to 'cull' around 800 thousand animals, with 40% to be males and 40% females (the remaining 20%, presumably, being non-binary individuals?).
Alongside preparations for the large-scale slaughter, the ministry, together with local administrations, is developing investment projects to establish meat processing plants for processing saiga meat. Six companies have already expressed interest in such a business.
The saiga saga is a real rollercoaster. In April last year, President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev solemnly promised residents of the Kostanay region to cancel the saiga cull, calling them 'symbols of the Kazakh steppe'. But in March of this year, at a meeting of the National Kurultai, the President announced the need for a 'balanced decision' on the matter.
In May 2025, the Ministry of Ecology finalised a roadmap for regulating population numbers. Around the same time, MP Pavel Kazantsev loudly declared an 'obvious emergency' due to the saiga population increase and urged immediate action, suggesting they 'give them what for' regarding the unique animals, assuring that 'there's nothing terrible about it'.
A familiar pattern. The ministry solemnly promised not to repeat the mistakes of 2023, but the scenario is unfolding in exactly the same way. As two years ago, the pretext for 'population regulation' is complaints of damage to farmers' crops. As then, scientific justification is brought into play – in 2023, it was provided by the Zhangir Khan West Kazakhstan Agrarian-Technical University, with the document being hidden from the public for a long time under a 'For Official Use Only' classification.
Next, following the proven algorithm, come the hunting permits, the hiring of marksmen, mass livestock deaths, carcasses and hides scattered across the steppe, the underground sale of meat at car washes, and the spread of infections. And at the finale – the mysterious disappearance of particularly valuable saiga horns, which, without a doubt, were safely stored at the RSE 'Okhotzooprom'.
And here is another interesting detail: in February last year, the Ministry of Ecology announced plans to amend the CITES Convention and obtain permission for the export of saiga horns by 2025. Now, as we know, ideal conditions are being created, entirely justifiably, for a new mass slaughter. The coincidence seems too convenient to be accidental. One can only wonder how many more times the ministry will reproduce the same scheme under the plausible pretext of caring for nature and agriculture.