Last Updated: Wednesday, 4 May 2005
Elephants trample two people to death

Herald Reporter
TWO people were trampled to death by elephants in separate incidents over the weekend. They were attacked after coming across the giant animals in Binga and Chikombedzi.

Police spokesperson Inspector Jessie Banda said a Binga woman on her way to a funeral died after being trampled by a stray elephant on Saturday.

Melo Kasonga came across the stray elephant in a bushy area and it attacked her. She died on the spot. Kasonga’s body was later discovered by a passerby who reported the matter to the police. In a related incident, a 29-year-old man died after being trampled by an elephant in Chikombedzi.

Tsakani Sithole was in the company of his uncle looking for their stray cattle when they came across the jumbo.

Insp Banda said the elephant charged towards Sithole and attacked him. He died on the spot.

"The two were looking for their cattle near a boundary fence to Gonarezhou National Park when he (Sithole) was attacked by the elephant," she said.

She said officials from the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority were informed and that they were still hunting down the elephant. Cases of people being trampled to death by elephants have been on the increase countrywide since January this year.

Does anyone having the current count of the various animal caused deaths since Jan 1?

Is there any site that has the reported deaths?

Thanks

Minkman

i like the way the elephants are reported as being "stray elephants", gotta love the african press.

Zim's stats this year are Ele 17, Buff 2; Croc 2, Hyaena 2, hippo 1. (Lightning strikes - 11)

If I were chinese I would be calling it the year of the elephant! This is already the highest toll for elephants since Zimbabwe began (1980 - the Rhodesian Records are in Archives)

Kansas City's stats this year, 36 murders so far. On a record year pace.

Bill,

Detroit has you guys beat, they average one per day. Often times more than that.

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:
Bill,

Detroit has you guys beat, they average one per day. Often times more than that.

From an economic standpoint, is that a net gain or a net loss for the city?

As Ganyana has posted, elephants are unusually "cheeky" this year. I noticed the same thing in Omay in March. The drought was very severe. Maize crops were 3 feet tall and already completely dried out. Very little had eared out and we saw no evidence of any melons in the fields. Last year was bad but nothing like this year. Starvation will be rampant unless some mealies are brought in to Omay. We had several requests to shoot elephants that were chasing the locals trying to protect their almost non-existant crops. It is a wonder that some were not killed. As I have said here before crop raiding cow herds are very rare but not this year. We saw as many or more cases of ceop raiding cow herds as bull groups. Last year we never saw an instance of a crop raiding cow herd. I suspect that the natural vegetation was also not greening up and the cow herds were looking for green forage in the crop lands. That may explain why both bulls and cows are so agressive this year. We also saw herds of elephants standing around the main roads in the middle of the day, again very unusual. Any one who spends some time in Zimbabwe Communal lands know how many people walk the roads and having eles that close to roads during the middle of the day is bound to lead to some problems.

465H&H