Elephants destroy food crop farms in Rombo
AMINA JUMA in Rombo
Daily News; Monday,August 25, 2008 @00:02


Rombo District Council in Kilimanjaro Region has incurred a loss of 718m/- due to destruction done by elephants which wandered into the villages from Tsavo National Park in neighbouring Kenya and ruined food crop farms.

Rombo District has been facing the problem for more than fifteen years now whereby elephants cause havoc in the villages, destroying farms and other property. Speaking with 'Daily News' at the weekend, the District Director, Mr Naijaijaya Koira, said up to June this year the district had incurred a loss of 142m/- due to destruction of farms.

He said since 2005 more than 3,000 hectares of different types of food crops had been destroyed by the elephants. “In 1994 the villagers killed 17 elephants and injured 10 but we are not encouraging our people to kill elephants because they’re part of national natural resources,†he said.

Mr Koira said the problem had forced the District Council to adjust its budget in order to deploy animal experts to affected villages. He said more than 50 per cent of food crop farms had been destroyed by the elephants. Koira asked the government to work on the problem because it was getting out of hand. “The central government has to tackle this problem. It is an urgent matter. District authorities and the affected people want to see an end to the problem,†the director said.