Upsurge in elephant poaching - by Chrispin Inambao 16 November 2010


LUSESE – A gang of poachers armed with a high-calibre .375 rifle last Saturday afternoon gunned down a five-tonne elephant in broad daylight.

The latest case of illegal hunting of elephant not for the pot, but for their valuable ivory tusks, brings to more than 10 the number of such cases reported outside several game parks in the Caprivi Region.

The poaching also took place despite a heavy police and security presence in Katima Mulilo, where President Hifikepunye Pohamba was on a visit.

Cedric Mundia, the Game Warden for Caprivi Regional Service in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, said there is an upsurge in organised elephant poaching in Caprivi.

The 10 cases reported to Mundia this year exclude several incidents of commercial ivory poaching that took place in the Mamili National Park, Mudumu Game Park and Bwabwata National Park in Caprivi.

He said poachers sell the ivory removed from poached elephants to Chinese ivory merchants.

Simasiku Vincent Simasiku, the junior induna said on Saturday at around midday he heard a report of a single gunshot being fired near the elephant habitat. After an hour, there was a staccato of rapid gunfire close to the area from where the giant elephant bull was found dead on its knees under a tree.

Last Sunday, Mate Simasiku, a resident of Lisikili village, who went to collect some tree twigs and poles for his hut, came across the dead elephant.

Mate reported the incident to his brother who in turn alerted game rangers who drove to the area on Sunday where they found the elephant without tusks.

Poachers did not cut any meat from the elephant and Alfons Nchindo who investigated the case only found some spent cartridges from a .375 rifle 20 metres in a bush thicket from where poachers ambushed the elephant.

Saturday’s daring mid-day poaching took place in a thickly vegetated area some three kilometres near Lizauli Village. The village is located near Malimina in the Lusese area.

The full-grown bull elephant whose tusks each weighed an estimated 40 kg was so big that game rangers who stood on one side of its lifeless carcass could not see others standing on the other.

These poachers in Caprivi have also orphaned several elephant calves that in turn are at their mercy.

Simasiku said this is the fourth case of elephant poaching near his village after two others were poached in one incident while another elephant was poached under circumstances similar to Saturday’s.

In September, villagers stumbled upon three elephant carcasses without tusks on the southern banks of the Zambezi River. The suspects were a gang of poachers believed to have crossed from Zambia.

Game rangers found spent cartridges of AK-47 rifles near the scene where the three elephants where poached near Impalila Island around September 10.

Mundia said because of an upsurge in cross-border poaching involving gangs of Zambian poachers who sneak into Namibia, his office is closely collaborating with the Zambia Wildlife Authority to curb the practice.

Villagers afraid of being accused of having poached the elephants took time before they got the nerve to report the incident. But by that time, the carcasses were decomposed and could not be distributed to them.

The area around Impalila where the three beasts were killed illegally is along the elephant migratory route between Namibia and Botswana’s Chobe, a park, with one of the highest elephant populations in the world.

While Zambian poachers were involved in the poaching near Impalila, it is suspected the poaching at Lisikili involved a Namibian, and wildlife investigators already have a suspect in mind.

The meat of the poached elephant bull was given to the Traditional Authority of Chief Kisco Liswani for distribution to his subjects.

Elephants are highly intelligent herbivorous animals that usually demonstrate concern for members of their families and usually take care of injured or weak members. They appear to grieve over their dead. While orphaned, elephants are looked after by remaining lactating she-elephants. A full-grown elephant weighs a massive 6500 kg.

Incidents of poaching in Caprivi include poaching of buffalo, kudus and impala and in some of the cases, government and other officials were implicated.

Where can I get a high calibre 375? Mine is just a H & H?

Three Elephants Killed in Caprivi
Absalom Shigwedha
18 November 2010


Three elephants were killed by poachers in Eastern Caprivi in the past few months while three impalas and one reebok were poached in the Mashi conservancy, a senior official in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism told The Namibian yesterday.

Colgar Sikopo, the deputy director of parks and wildlife management, said one suspect has been arrested in connection with the killing of the impalas and reebok.

He said no one has been arrested in connection with the killing of the three elephants.

Mashi conservancy is next to the Mudumu National Park in the Caprivi Region.

One elephant was killed at Lusese village last Saturday while the other two were killed in the Impalila-Kasika area, according to Sikopo.

"We are investigating these incident together with the Police and we have dispatched a team to the areas where these incidents occurred," he said.


"It appears there is some connection with the local people," he said, adding that the arrested suspect used a Government vehicle for poaching the impalas and reebok.

Elephants and impalas are both specially protected species in Namibia and their illegal killing carries a maximum prison sentence of six years or a fine of N$6 000.

Poaching of endangered species has been on the increase in Africa.

In August, the South African Wildlife Service reported that rhino poaching had escalated at an unprecedented rate and that more than 150 rhinos had been poached in South Africa this year - many of them in private game reserves