Culling deer in England will be made easier under a long-awaited government 10-year plan to deal with a population explosion that threatens woodlands, newly planted trees and farmland.

There are thought to be more than two million deer in Britain, which have damaged one third of English woodlands and left farmers with costly crop losses.

The government has unveiled a deer management strategy that will identify priority culling areas and make it easier to carry out licensed night-time and closed-season shooting.

Farmers could also be given new legal rights to shoot them to protect their crops.

But some animal welfare campaigners said culling was inhumane and not effective in the long term.

Andrew Blenkiron, who oversees the Elveden estate in Suffolk, welcomed any measures that would make it easier to control deer numbers, which he said had "rocketed" during Covid lockdowns and remained high.

Blenkiron told the BBC that dealing with smaller deer such as muntjac was a "horrendous battle as they almost breed like rabbits" and the loss and damage to crops caused by local herds costs the estate up to £100,000 a year.

"Carrots are a real focus for them.

They even dig potatoes up, believe it or not. The big red deer dig potatoes out of the ground," he explained.

He added that meat from deer culled around the estate was sold locally and supplied to a nearby primary school.

But a spokeswoman for the animal rights campaign group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said that culling wild deer would not resolve the problem of overpopulation.

"Removing deer from the landscape doesn't stop their numbers from rebounding, and, in many cases, a temporary reduction in population leaves more food available per animal, which can increase breeding rates in the survivors," she said. Instead, PETA called for "humane and sustainable" options to be used, including habitat modification, appropriate fencing and limiting access to artificial food sources.

There are currently six deer species in Britain – red, sika, fallow, roe, muntjac and Chinese water - but only red and roe are "truly indigenous", according to the British Deer Society.

While no-one knows exactly how many deer there now are, official estimates suggest there may be more than two million - a huge increase from the estimated 450,000 in the 1970s and the highest number for 1,000 years.

The government said that current deer management had failed, with 33% of English woodlands now classed as being in an "unfavourable condition" due to excessive trampling and grazing by deer, up from 24% in the early 2000s.

More than 74,000 deer are involved in collisions with vehicles each year, killing between 10 and 20 people and injuring more than 700, according to the RSPCA.

The government's new 10-year plan aims to identify national priority areas where focused culling is needed and to streamline the process for licensing the shooting of deer, particularly at night and in the closed season, so "landowners can more quickly and easily protect crops and timber".

Martin Edwards, head of deer and woodland management for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, welcomed the plan and said there would be "real opportunities to build on the work of both volunteer and professional deer managers in tackling the UK's expanding deer population".

The nature minister, Mary Creagh, said the government was committed to helping landowners and farmers tackle the problems caused by deer "so woodlands can flourish and crops can be better protected".

The government said it also wanted to promote and support a domestic market for the venison from culled deer, including pushing for more to be bought and served up by schools, prisons and hospitals

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