WASHINGTON:- The administration of US President Donald Trump faced a barrage of criticism on Thursday from animal rights groups after it authorized the import of Zimbabwean elephant hunting trophies. The move reverses a prohibition imposed under Barack Obama and is the latest rollback of Obama-era controls on a number of fronts. It also came on the same day that the US State Department presented to Congress its first annual report on wildlife trafficking which, it said, “remains a serious transnational crime.” The US Fish & Wildlife Service said it “will begin issuing permits to allow the import of sport-hunted trophies from elephants hunted in Zimbabwe” between January 21, 2016 and December 31, 2018.