Elephants terrorise villagers in Bubi

By Emmanuel Chuma
From The Chronicle
May 15, 2009


VILLAGERS in Kennilworth in Bubi District are living in fear of a herd of elephants that has descended on their area and is destroying crops.
Villagers said as a result they had lost hundreds of tonnes of maize and were now facing food shortages.
When a Chronicle newscrew visited the area on Wednesday, disappointed villagers called on the authorities to drive away the elephants.
Among the crops destroyed were maize, millet, sorghum, watermelons, groundnuts and round nuts.
The herd of elephants, which according to the villagers, numbers about 100, descended on the area three weeks ago.
As a result of the destruction caused by the animals, the villagers said they will have to appeal for food assistance from the Government and donor agencies, despite the good season they had.
In addition, the villagers said they feared for their lives as the animals were also breaking into their homesteads to consume the crops, which they harvested.
One of the villagers, Mr Renley Nqadini of Village 11 said he lost all his crops.
“The elephants came into the area on 27 April. They broke into my field the following day and destroyed all that was there. I was just beginning to harvest maize in my field when the incident happened. It was supposed to be a good harvest for me and my family but all that has come to nothing,” he said.
“This year I was not worried about food shortages because we had worked hard in the fields despite the fact we struggled to get inputs such as fertiliser and seed.”
Mr Nqadini said although villagers tried to scare away the elephants by making fires and beating drums, the animals were not deterred.
“Those animals are dangerous. We have made reports to the responsible authorities but no action has been taken up to now. We are appealing to the authorities to drive away these animals because they are now a threat to human life,” he said.
Councillor John Mutamo of Village 13 said they were making frantic efforts for the rural district council to engage the responsible authorities to remove the animals.
“In my area alone, 40 farmers have been severely affected by the destruction of their fields. The crops in the fields have been totally damaged, with the affected farmers expecting to harvest only a quarter of what they were supposed to reap,” he said.
“These animals have established a camp here. They raid the fields at night and we are forced to spend sleepless nights guarding the fields.”
Another villager, Mr Joseph Masuku of Village 14 said the animals also destroyed the fence in the villagers' fields exposing the crops to domestic animals.
“Some villagers in my area are harvesting green maize in fear that if they leave it in the fields it might be destroyed by the elephants,” he said.
Mr Luka Mpengesi of Village 15 also said the elephants destroyed the crops in his fields and what he had harvested and stored at his homestead.
“They first raided our fields and when there was nothing left they moved into the homesteads. They destroyed the produce which we had stored there. It was quite a scary experience when these animals moved into our homesteads,” he said.
“I was woken by the noise outside and when I went out to investigate there were many elephants outside. My neighbours then started beating drums to scare away the animals, but they were not moved.
“We made fires around the village, which irritated them, and they started behaving as if they wanted to attack us. We had to flee to our homesteads to seek refugee.”