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.
POLITICAL PRISONERS VS DEPORTEES: Venezuela’s prosecutor’s office slammed the call by El Salvador’s leader, accusing him of crimes against humanity Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele on Sunday proposed carrying out a prisoner swap with Venezuela, suggesting he would exchange Venezuelan deportees from the US his government has kept imprisoned for what he called “political prisoners” in Venezuela. In a post on X, directed at Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Bukele listed off a number of family members of high-level opposition figures in Venezuela, journalists and activists detained during the South American government’s electoral crackdown last year. “The only reason they are imprisoned is for having opposed you and your electoral fraud,” he wrote to Maduro. “However, I want to propose a humanitarian agreement that
ECONOMIC WORRIES: The ruling PAP faces voters amid concerns that the city-state faces the possibility of a recession and job losses amid Washington’s tariffs Singapore yesterday finalized contestants for its general election on Saturday next week, with the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP) fielding 32 new candidates in the biggest refresh of the party that has ruled the city-state since independence in 1965. The move follows a pledge by Singaporean Prime Minister Lawrence Wong (黃循財), who took office last year and assumed the PAP leadership, to “bring in new blood, new ideas and new energy” to steer the country of 6 million people. His latest shake-up beats that of predecessors Lee Hsien Loong (李顯龍) and Goh Chok Tong (吳作棟), who replaced 24 and 11 politicians respectively
Young women standing idly around a park in Tokyo’s west suggest that a giant statue of Godzilla is not the only attraction for a record number of foreign tourists. Their faces lit by the cold glow of their phones, the women lining Okubo Park are evidence that sex tourism has developed as a dark flipside to the bustling Kabukicho nightlife district. Increasing numbers of foreign men are flocking to the area after seeing videos on social media. One of the women said that the area near Kabukicho, where Godzilla rumbles and belches smoke atop a cinema, has become a “real
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to