17 May 2017

Residents of Tubu in the Okavango District have complained about the excessive damage caused by elephants in their fields.

The elephants are said to be destroying field fences and feeding on everything that has been ploughed and leaving farmers empty handed.

In an interview, Kgosi Eastimen Motshidiemang said many people in his area had experienced the damage, and that many incidents still continued to be reported.

He said the damage caused by elephants was extreme and appealed for prompt intervention by the relevant authorities.

Kgosi Motshidiemang also complained that it took too long for the Department of Wildlife and National Parks officials to respond when they reported incidents of elephants destroying their crops.

He added that some farmers had resorted to not reporting the damage caused by elephants since they rarely got any assistance.

He, however, advised farmers to always be present at their fields, saying they could somehow scare the animals away either by making noise or anything upon intrusion.

Meanwhile, the principal wildlife warden in Gumare, Mr Ovitt Rantlole said the wildlife and national parks department was committed to assisting the aggrieved farmers in any manner, adding that Tubu was one area which the wildlife officers visited frequently.

He, however, noted the challenge they experienced as a department of lack of funds used to compensate farmers for the damage caused by elephants.

“Our funds got depleted in May last year and it was only during the 2017/18 financial year that we got funds to compensate farmers.

As we speak, we are busy pushing the backlog and those whose damage had been assessed and approved have already been paid,” he said.

Failure to attend to reported incidents on time, he said, was due to shortage of vehicles at the department. ENDS