Elephants destroy crops in Hwange West

Victoria Falls Reporter
February 16, 2010



COMMUNITIES in Hwange West are now having sleepless nights as they attend to fires, blow horns and vuvuzelas to scare away wild animals, especially elephants, that are destroying their crops.
The communities have sent an SOS to the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (NPWMA) hoping that swift action will be taken to control the problem animals.
Even for urban farmers in the resort town of Victoria Falls, fires, noise and vuvuzelas are now a common sight at night as the farmers try to scare away elephants.
Gunshots have even been heard at night in Mkhosana Township and now residents wonder if it is just people chasing elephants or poachers are also taking advantage.
“Failure to chase the elephants away is disastrous as to date a number of hectares of potential maize harvest have been destroyed by these elephants. So we would rather lose sleep at night attending to fires, beating drums or anything that makes noise to scare these animals away,” said Mr Nkosilathi Moyo from Monde village under Chief Mvutu.
He added: “Baboons on the other hand are also a menace but these raid the fields in daylight and their impact is not as huge as that of big animals like elephants.”
With the elephant population now reaching over 100 000 in a country that has a holding capacity of less than 45 000, the human-elephant conflict is unfortunately going to claim more human lives and people’s livelihood.
Of the 100 000 elephants, the country is only allowed 500 elephants annually for trophy hunting, a figure that is too little for its impact to be felt in terms of controlling the population.
Only last week, police confirmed that an elephant trampled a woman in Jambezi area, as she tried in vain to chase it away from her field.
NPWMA officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the use of guns by residents to scare away the elephants was illegal.
“As parks we are aware of the problem and we react accordingly. However, our hands are tied by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). As you know the country can only harvest 500 elephants annually for trophy. We are also banned from trading in ivory and with the population of the animals growing uncontrollably, the country is in a catch 22 situation,” said a parks official.
The official also said NPWMA rangers had been to other areas in the district where they had shot some elephants but added that the numbers were too few to make an immediate impact.
Already the Kenyan government has called on Cites to increase the ban on ivory trade by another 20 years.
Efforts to get a comment from NPWMA public relations manager Ms Caroline Washaya-Moyo were fruitless.