Animal rights campaigners tonight accuse ministers of “betraying public trust” over the badger cull.
Activists fear the killing programme is set to be widened – despite promises it would be phased out.
The Badger Trust has written to Environment Secretary George Eustice calling on him to rule out expanding the scheme.
In the letter, seen by the Mirror, chief executive Dominic Dyer says: “By the end of August Natural England is expected to approve a further 10 new badger cull licences in the high risk, 'edge' and low risk areas of England.
“England will see a huge expansion of culling from Cornwall to Cumbria and east to Lincoln which could well bring the total number of badgers killed so far to 200,000.”
Cull supporters believe killing badgers helps curb TB in cows, with badgers blamed for carrying the disease around the countryside, infecting cattle.
But opponents believe the shooting and trapping programme is ineffective.
Labour has pledged an immediate end to the “cruel and unnecessary” scheme.
Some 102,188 badgers have been killed since the controversial cull began in 2013, with 35,034 dying in last year's scheme, which operated in 40 areas of England from Cornwall to Cumbria.
The Government has claimed the cull will begin to be phased out in the next few years, with vaccination of badgers being ramped up instead.
An announcement in March fuelled hopes of a “seismic shift in policy and an imminent end to badger culling”, according to Mr Dyer.
He told the Mirror: “The Government is betraying public trust and carrying out an act of ecological vandalism unprecedented in modern history when it comes to the mass destruction of badgers.
“During the Covid-19 lockdown the Government has been preparing plans with the farming industry to slaughter up to 100,000 more badgers in England by the end of 2020.
“This could push the badger population to the verge of collapse in large parts of England, where it has inhabited since the Ice Age.
“By the end of 2020 up to 200,000 could be killed, since the badger cull policy started in 2013.”
An Environment Department spokesman said it would stick by its plan to phase out “intensive culling”, which was announced in March following a Government-sponsored review by Oxford University Professor Sir Charles Godfray.
The spokesman said: “We want to eradicate bovine TB by 2038 and while badger culling is a necessary part of this, no one wants to see it continue indefinitely.
“As our response to the Godfray review set out, we will phase out intensive culling in the next few years.
“That is why we intend to start deploying badger vaccination in areas where the four-year cull cycle has ended.”
