Etosha Elephants Terrorise People At Emutemo Village
Oswald Shivute
3 August 2011

From The Namibian


A GROUP of elephants suspected to have escaped from the Etosha National Park have since Sunday been terrorising people at Omutemo village in the Oshikoto Region.

The villagers say the herd of six elephants arrived at the village Sunday night and had been terrorising them since, including destroying their mahangu fields and killing a goat.

The elephants became aggressive and were even charging at the villagers, who had to run away.

The Namibian's reporter, who was at the scene also had to run for his life as the elephants bulls charged at everyone in sight.

The goat, which was mauled by an elephant bull was grazing in a nearby field when it was attacked and thrown against a fence.

Nature conservation officials who were informed by the villagers about the presence of the aggressive animals had to shoot in the air to scare the elephants away. The elephants then disappeared into nearby bushes.

According to Omuntele councillor, Sacky Nangula, more than six elephants arrived at Omuteno village Sunday night and started destroying mahangu fields, including harassing villagers.

Hileni Nelago Iithana, in whose field the elephants stayed overnight, had to vacate her house out of fear that the animals may attack her and the family.

Etosha Elephant Marked to Die
Oswald Shivute And Jana-Mari Smith
8 August 2011

From The Namibian

AN outcry by a village in the Oshikoto Region over a group of elephants has forced the Ministry of Environment to declare one of the elephants a problem animal.

According to Dr Kalumbi Shangula, Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Environment, a group of six elephants caused outrage at the Omutemo village in the Oshikoto region, bordering on Etosha National Park.

After numerous attempts to chase the elephants back into Etosha from where they originate, the Ministry decided to have one of the elephants "declared a problem animal".

Dr Shangula said that the strategy is to kill one elephant "with the hope the others will get frightened and not come out of Etosha anymore". Dr Shangula said that although the village has claimed that the elephants destroy their crops, the issue is essentially of "a psychological nature.

It's fear, they fear the animal. The animals are intimidating." He said there was little proof that the elephants destroyed substantial crops, as claimed by the village.

But, he said, for some reason the group of animals did "become aggressive" and now posed a physical danger to people in the area.

"If they cause too much trouble, then we have to shoot them. Then they will definitely hesitate to come back again," he said.

The PS said the problem of elephants and other wildlife escaping temporarily from the park causing problems with people living outside is widespread.

As a result, the Ministry began last year to build an elephant proof fence around the park, he said.

Last year, he said, 14 kilometres of the elephant proof, electrified fence was built. This year an additional 40 kilometres are being constructed. The fence is also equipped with an alarm system that will alert wardens when animals escape, he said.


A professional hunter, who works alongside the conservancy members, will be tasked to have the marked elephant killed during a trophy hunt, Shangula said.

The conservancy members and others in the area will get "quite a substantial amount of money" out of the trophy hunt. In addition the meat from the animal will be divided between members.

Omutemo villagers last weekend called for the particular elephant to be put down, and said they wanted the Ministry to hand out the meat of the animal as compensation.

Omuntele Constituency, in which Omutemo is located, has had a long-standing problem with elephants which escape from the Etosha National Park.