Rogue Elephants Terrorise Villagers
Friday, 17th of October 2008

By Wezi Tjaronda From The New Era

WINDHOEK – Some community members of the Malengalenga area in the Caprivi Region have abandoned their maize fields for fear of being attacked by elephants roaming around the area.

Malengalenga village is one of the areas where elephants roam freely because it borders the Mamili National Park.

During this time, some people leave their homes to go and tend to their maize fields. But due to the havoc the jumbos are causing, some people especially, widows have abandoned their fields.

James Lizazi, chairperson of the Dzoti Emerging Conservancy, which resorts under the Linyanti constituency, told New Era yesterday that the community has lost three people since 2006 to elephants, with one narrowly escaping death last week. Lizazi said elephants have completely destroyed about 15 maize fields in the area. Some of the maize has reached tasseling stage.

He urged the Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) to gazette the conservancy for the communities to benefit from the wildlife.

“It is a serious matter. If the conservancy is gazetted, we can at least call in a trophy hunter to kill problem animals and use the money to protect our fields,†he said.

The ministry’s deputy director Parks and Wildlife Management Colgar Sikopo acknowledged receiving a verbal report about what is happening in the area.
He said the ministry has sent a team of officials to investigate the matter before the ministry take appropriate action.

“We have sent our staff to investigate the extent of the damage and the number of elephants involved to give us an idea on what action to take,†he said, adding that depending on the report of the investigation, the animals could be chased back into the park or an identified problem animal could be killed.

He said the whole of the Caprivi Region has problems with elephants but in this case, the jumbos moved in and out of the park and were also attracted by the maize fields.

Since the conservancy is not yet gazetted, the proceeds of a problem animal if shot goes to the Game Products Trust Fund, which can only be released to an area after a proposal is made.

Sikopo said the parks and wildlife management directorate was scrutinising the application for the conservancy and would send it to Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah for gazetting. A conservancy has utilisation rights after it is registered and gazetted.

Dzoti and Sikunga are among many applications the ministry has received to have areas gazetted as conservancies. In August, Nandi-Ndaitwah launched the Sobbe Conservancy in Masida village, also in the Caprivi Region.

According to a publication “Namibia’s Communal Conservancies: A review of progress and challenges in 2007’, elephants are the most problematic in the Caprivi Region. Of the 1 983 crop damage cases in 2007, the cases were most prevalent in Caprivi and Kavango regions. The publication said while conservancies have improved conservation, there are places where people pursue activities that are in conflict with conservation.

It said while effective land use planning and zoning can be enforced to bring about more harmony between wildlife and competing land uses, other solutions to human-wildlife conflict could include use of deterrents, fences, kraals and structures to protect water holes.

The last resort, said the publication, would be to have quotas for problem animals and an insurance scheme to compensate for losses.