Poor villagers and wild elephants are engaged in an increasingly bitter battle for space and food in Zambia, with animal conservation authorities accused of doing little to end the conflict.
The elephants have claimed lives and destroyed property and vast fields of maize and cassava in the landlocked country.
Terrorized people say Zambia's estimated 25,000 elephants have pushed the hungry and helpless deeper into poverty.
Clashes with elephants increase during the farming season when huge migrating herds from neighboring Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana and local elephants move in search of greener pastures and water.
Mounting reports of destruction wrought by the elephants when huge herds leave their designated game area and invade farmers' fields, destroying crops and property, have been coming from the north, south and east in recent months.
About 10 people have also been reported killed in elephant attacks on villages.
The Mpika district in northern Zambia reported on Tuesday that elephants had destroyed maize and cassava fields.
"Elephants have left the park and are destroying our crops and plunging us into further poverty," said Emelda Mulenga, a villager hit by the havoc.
Local chiefs in affected areas say the elephants have become a menace and were aggravating the situation because they destroyed people's homes and food.
The farming season has reached a critical stage and most of the affected areas have yet to recover from last season's drought.
Many communities still have no food. The Zambian Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) says it cannot compensate people whose crops and property have been destroyed by the elephants because it has no provision.
The elephants must be protected for their economic value and their importance for tourism in the southern African state, says ZAWA spokesperson Maureen Mwape.
"We want the elephant because of the value it brings the country. Communities just have to learn to live in harmony with the elephants," she says.
"It's difficult to separate the two and the solution is not in killing the animals," Mwape explains.
However, this approach has brought ZAWA to near-violent conflict with local communities for failure to investigate their plight.
Mwape says that the authority is not happy that people's crops have been destroyed and wants local communities to be pro-active and participate in conserving the animals.
"We don't enjoy seeing people going hungry, but we have a job to protect the elephants, hippos and all wild animals. The goal is in conservation," she says.
Insufficient funding and low manpower has left ZAWA less than capable of responding to calls to clear the animals.
The slaying of elephants in Zambia is illegal and carries stiff penalties and minimum prison sentences of between seven and 10 years.
Mwape explains that high levels of human population growth in affected areas is a critical contributing factor to the conflict between the poor and the elephants.
"People in search of more land have moved and settled in the range and routes of the animals. This has depleted the animal's space," she explains.
Elephant attacks have also been attributed to drought and joint borders with national parks and game management areas in neighboring countries, which force the increased density of elephants to migrate.
"In the process, they eat people's crops in settlements," Mwape points out.
Last May, the government introduced elephant sport hunting to contain the animal numbers and curb the destruction of crops and human life.
However, this has yet to show any significant effect or benefit the local communities.
X-37B COMPARISON: China’s spaceplane is most likely testing technology, much like US’ vehicle, said Victoria Samson, an official at the Secure World Foundation China’s shadowy, uncrewed reusable spacecraft, which launches atop a rocket booster and lands at a secretive military airfield, is most likely testing technology, but could also be used for manipulating or retrieving satellites, experts said. The spacecraft, on its third mission, was last month observed releasing an object, moving several kilometers away and then maneuvering back to within a few hundred meters of it. “It’s obvious that it has a military application, including, for example, closely inspecting objects of the enemy or disabling them, but it also has non-military applications,” said Marco Langbroek, a lecturer in optical space situational awareness at Delft
Malaysia yesterday installed a motorcycle-riding billionaire sultan as its new king in lavish ceremonies for a post seen as a ballast in times of political crises. The coronation ceremony for Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim, 65, at the National Palace in Kuala Lumpur followed his oath-taking in January as the country’s 17th monarch. Malaysia is a constitutional monarchy, with a unique arrangement that sees the throne change hands every five years between the rulers of nine Malaysian states headed by centuries-old Islamic royalty. While chiefly ceremonial, the position of king has in the past few years played an increasingly important role. Royal intervention was
The Philippine Air Force must ramp up pilot training if it is to buy 20 or more multirole fighter jets as it modernizes and expands joint operations with its navy, a commander said yesterday. A day earlier US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said that the US “will do what is necessary” to see that the Philippines is able to resupply a ship on the Second Thomas Shoal (Renai Shoal, 仁愛暗沙) that Manila uses to reinforce its claims to the atoll. Sullivan said the US would prefer that the Philippines conducts the resupplies of the small crew on the warship Sierra Madre,
AIRLINES RECOVERING: Two-thirds of the flights canceled on Saturday due to the faulty CrowdStrike update that hit 8.5 million devices worldwide occurred in the US As the world continues to recover from massive business and travel disruptions caused by a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, malicious actors are trying to exploit the situation for their own gain. Government cybersecurity agencies across the globe and CrowdStrike CEO George Kurtz are warning businesses and individuals around the world about new phishing schemes that involve malicious actors posing as CrowdStrike employees or other tech specialists offering to assist those recovering from the outage. “We know that adversaries and bad actors will try to exploit events like this,” Kurtz said in a statement. “I encourage everyone to remain vigilant