Local News

Elephants put villages under siege

By Arusha Times Correspondent

Residents of Mbugwe division in Babati district, Manyara region are living in fear because of attacks by elephants from the neighbouring national parks.

One villager was recently trampled to death by the elephants at Olasiti village and despite intensified patrols by their vigilante groups, many are worried of more attacks in future.

Alais Lekoi, a councillor for Nkaiti ward which combines Olasiti, Minjingu and Vilima Vitatu told The Arusha Times last week that more elephants are trooping to villages in search of pastures.

He said although there were scattered rains over the area, the situation would get worse during the long dry season during which animals migrate around available water holes.

He added that a villager identified as Miruki Melembuki (38), a security guard at one of the tourist camps in the area, was killed by elephants early in the night when he was heading to his work place.

He said the death was reported to the neighbouring Tarangire National Park whose rangers have been tracking down the killer elephant but with no success.

Mr. Lekoi added that large herds of elephants, sometimes numbering up to 200 at a time, have been rampaging villages in Nkaiti ward and other areas in the division in search of fodder and water.

He said there was little the villagers can do because they are not allowed to pursue the killer animals inside the national park.

According to him, the game department at Babati was also short of staff and currently is said to have only one game officer who is handicapped by lack of transport.

Invasion of animals in the villages has been compounded by the fact that the entire Nkaiti ward, near the Minjingu fertiliser plant, used to be an animal corridor before hundreds of families settled there.

The wildlife corridor linked Tarangire with the neighbouring Lake Manyara National Park, Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), Serengeti National Park as well as the game reserves around Lake Natron.

In the last two years, several people in the area have been attacked and killed by animals, notably elephants, often fleeing prolonged droughts in the semi-arid Maasai Steppe.

Tarangire NP, located some 120 kilometres south west of Arusha, has one of the largest concentrations of elephants. Up to five people have died of animal attacks in the area in the last two years.