The hippo cull is slated for the Luangwa River valley in Zambia's Eastern province, the Department of National Parks & Wildlife said last week in a statement.

The plan first announced in October would provide for the killing of as many as 2,000 hippos over five years, tourism minister Charles Banda said at the time, according to Reuters.

The plan had been shelved in 2016 amid protests by animal rights groups, including the UK-based organization, Born Free, which again is slamming the plan and has asked Zambian President Edgar Lungu in writing to "immediately and permanently" stop it, activists said. 

Born Free claims the wildlife ministry has not provided scientific evidence of its claims of an overpopulation of hippos and water levels that are too low to sustain them. Banda made those claims in October, when he revealed that the suspended 2016 plan would be resurrected, Reuters reported.