16 May 2023

People residing close to Botswana and Zimbabwe border in the North East District are living in fear after elephants were spotted in their villages.

Francistown based District Wildlife Officer, Mr Mbututu Mbututu confirmed in an interview recently that elephants from across the border terrorised residents  in villages along the border.

He said invasion of these elephants spread to the villages of Gambule, Moroka, Sekakangwe, Mbalambi, Gungwe, Zwenshambe and other villages in the North East District.

Other areas invaded by elephants, he said included Dagwi, Matsiloje, Matsitama and Maitengwe.

Mr Mbututu said the influx of elephants start from the month of February onwards every year due to  lack of surface water in Zimbabwe.

These elephants, he said destroy crops  and  damage the fences as they moved to the grazing area.

Mr Mbututu said it was a daunting task to drive these elephants away basing on the terrain which was bushy. We use helicopter to carry out the mission, he said.

 On the other hand, he encouraged farmers to form cluster fencing in order to protect their crops from marauding wild animals adding that they could even electrify the fence to keep animals away from destroying their crops.

“Since people in the affected villages are not familiar with elephants and their behavior, we conduct public education focusing on  behavior of elephants and precautions to take when they come across them,” said Mr Mbututu.

Public education, he said was conducted to the community in order to avoid loss of life or injury that might result from elephants attacks. 

In a recent kgotla meeting, Member of Parliament for Tati West,  Mr Simon Moabi told fesidents that about 150 elephants were seen around their area in Mbalambi. BOPA