12 Aug 2020

The Department of Wildlife and National Parks in the Okavango Sub-district has this year recorded fewer cases of crop destruction by elephants.

  Gumare wildlife officer in charge Mr Rabogwe Rampete, said the region had seen a decline of cases from 1 017 in 2019 to 454 so far this year.

 He said so far, 147 reports had been received from Gumare, 224 Shakawe and 83 from Seronga.

 In 2019, 559 cases were recorded in Gumare, 356 in Shakawe and 102 in Seronga, he said.

  Mr Rampete said in the recent past, elephant crop raids had been rampant in the area, a situation which brought agony and misery.

The animals would destroy field fences and feed on everything that had been planted, leaving farmers empty handed.

The situation was exacerbated by drought and increased elephant population which resulted in the animals encroaching into human settlements.

Meanwhile, some farmers have attributed the absence of elephants to good rains, noting that there was plenty of water in the animals’ natural habitat, hence reduced migration to human settlements.

One Xhurube farmer, Mr Yanyika Kao said 2020 was a bumper one for many farmers in the region as elephants did not terrorise that much.

He however said he was one of the unfortunate farmers whose fields were most affected by the outbreak of the African migratory locust early this year.

 

Another farmer, Mr Father Mange of Kadangasa fields near Tubu, said in 2018, many people in his area had their crops destroyed by elephants, while this year, the destruction  was minimal.BOPA