Botswana is battling to contain conflict between humans and wildlife, especially elephants and buffalos, it has emerged.
The conflict between humans and wildlife has coincided with reports that there were a number of carcasses of elephants that were supposedly killed by poachers.
But such reports were shot down by the Botswana government amid continued attacks from the western media that the southern African country’s decision to lift a hunting ban gave poachers an opportunity to kill the largest mammal on earth.
Thirty four-year-old Moses Kagelelo from the resort town of Maun in northern Botswana still can’t believe that he survived an elephant attack by a whisker.
He recalls that the last words he heard from his uncle were a warning to “watch out, here comes an elephant.”
“I feel sorry because his words somehow saved my life. As I raced past him, with the elephant charging and in hot pursuit, what I could see and literally feel was my life flashing past as the big animal caught up with me and trampled upon me,” he recalls.
Kagelelo is one of scores of Batswana who stay in areas that have large populations of wildlife and are, therefore, prone to humans-wildlife conflict.
A recent fatal attack which took place in North West District was confirmed by police spoekesman Senior Superintendent Peter Gochela.
He explained that the incident took place at Mankunyane cattle post on the outskirts of Maun.
Gochela said the deceased and three other members of his family had gone to look for stray cattle when the fatal incident happened.
He said a considerable number of people have been killed in the district since the beginning of the year.
Yet in another tourism town resort, Kasane, in the north-eastern Botswana, a man was trampled to death by an elephant.
Merafhe Shamukuni’s family is still grieving.
“He had four children. Two girls and two boys and the parents and us as the family and now he’s gone. All the things he used to do are gone with him,” Shamukuni’s sister, Dorcus, said.
Police in Kasane have confirmed that yet another life has been lost to an elephant attack in Chobe, barely three weeks after another incident.
A 68-year-old man from Kazungula was allegedly killed by an elephant by the road leading to the Zimbabwean border.
Station commander for Kasane police, Superintendent Silton Fidzani confirmed the incident.
He said another incident was reported in which a 78-year-old man was killed by an elephant along the Kazungula-Nata road, still near Kasane.
In a related incident, a seven-month-old infant escaped death after a buffalo attacked and killed its 80-year-old grandmother in Kavimba village near Kasane.
According to Superintendent Setume Ten Budani, the grandmother went out to look for her goats in the morning and had the infant safely tied on her back.
Reports indicate that after killing the octogenarian the buffalo stood a distance away as if standing guard.
While the Botswana government compensates the families of those killed by animals and for damage to property, the victims say the amounts are very low.
President Mokgweetsi Masisi has since announced that the government is working on finding a solution to the human-wildlife conflicts while communities are calling for some of the elephants to be culled.
In a recent editorial, one of the leading newspapers in the country, Mmegi, stated that “Batswana are not safe in their lands, cattle posts and homes. Something needs to be done to address the matter.”
“There is serious need for policy review to arrest the situation. We know it is not easy, with all the pressure from the western countries; however a solution has to be met soon,” the paper said.
KO/jn/APA