24 Mar 2015

Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) officers in Sepako are preparing to chase wildlife animals outside the village to protect residents and reduce the human-wildlife conflict.

Speaking in an interview, the senior wildlife warden in Sepako, Mr Obamang Kgongwana said the battle would be due to the limited rainfall received in the area this year. He said the natural water pond located along the Botswana/Zimbabwe border, which majority of the animals in the area drank from had not received enough water.

Mr Kgongwana said current water in the pond could only last three months, which means that at the beginning of July, they will be faced with challenges of animals wanting to share water from the residents’ boreholes. He said compared to other animals, elephants in particular were the ones they usually have a difficult task of controlling. 

The officer said although there is a quarry just outside the village, which also holds water that usually lasts until the next rainy season, elephants however prefer to rampage the village.  Mr Kgongwana said they usually have it tough to be at different boreholes around the village to re-direct the elephants away as they are thin on the ground. 

He explained that they are only seven in the area with two of them being senior officers and with their fleet of three vehicles reduced to one as result of the need for maintenance for over a year now, it becomes difficult for them to deal with the situation and meet the public’s expectation.

Because of the apparently high number of elephants in the area and surrounding areas of Nata and Gweta, getting additional manpower always proves to be difficult, including being assisted with a vehicle. 

Mr Kgongwana said they are however hopeful that with the anticipated drilling of two boreholes for wildlife animals in the area, the situation will improve as they will have a place to drive them to.

Meanwhile, he highlighted that since December last year, two hippopotamus have been seen at the Mmadinoga Quarry and unlike in the past years, where they have had to move them, they will leave them as the place has enough water to last them until the next rainy season. ENDS