Namibia: Villagers Plagued By Elephants Again


The Namibian (Windhoek)

4 June 2008
Posted to the web 4 June 2008

Oswald Shivute
Windhoek

RESIDENTS at Onanke village in the Oshikoto Region are complaining about a herd of elephants that have destroyed their crops.

One of the villagers, Moses Thomas, told The Namibian that the elephants arrived at the village early last month, trampling mahangu fields, fences and homesteads.


"My whole mahangu field has been emptied by these elephants.

We have no more mahangu in the fields and are going to have no harvest this year, because of these elephants," Thomas said.

He said the village also had trouble with lions catching livestock.

"These lions have already killed and eaten up two horses belonging to Nabot Kambishi and a certain Kaengwa," Thomas said.

Omuntele Constituency councillor Sackey Nangula said he had reported the problems to wildlife officers at Okaukweyo, but to no avail.

"They just came to the village, chased the wild animals into the bush, but these animals came back again afterwards and started molesting us and destroying our crops," he said.

Nangula blamed the problem on the poor condition of the fence around Etosha National Park.

The Director of Parks and Wildlife Management, Ben Beytell, said he was only aware of the presence of elephants in the south-western Omusati Region, but not at Onanke village.

He promised to investigate the reports.

Beytell said elephants were looking for greener pastures because much of the Etosha Pan was filled with water.

He admitted the poor condition of the Etosha fence, but said it would cost about N$30 million to put up a proper fence that could keep large animals such as elephants in.

The Ministry had been asked to find money for this purpose, Beytell said.


According to him, some communities want wild animals in their areas and have pleaded with the Ministry to leave some gaps in the park fence to allow smaller game like springbok to migrate to the farming areas where they can be hunted.

"We can do that, but then big and dangerous animals such as elephants and lions will also go through those openings into the villages and cause problems to the people and their properties," Beytell said.

Last month, one elephant was shot and a villager, Erikson Nangula, was trampled to death at Omuntele village in the Oshikoto Region.