Back to Index

Tsunami disaster and a plea for our elephants
Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF)
January 09, 2005

We would like to offer our sincere condolences to all those who lost their loved ones, their homes and their livelihoods in the recent Tsunami tragedy. In the wake of this terrible disaster, it may not seem appropriate to appeal for the lives of our elephants but one thing that has captured the attention of people all over the world is that it appears that all the animals managed to escape a watery death when the Tsunami struck. According to reports, no dead wild animals have been found amongst the debris.

Even more amazing is the story of elephants actually saving the lives of about 12 tourists in Khao Lak, Thailand. Wit Aniwat earns his living by using his eight Indian elephants to give tourists elephant rides. It is said that at around the time the earthquake beneath the sea occurred, Aniwat's elephants started trumpeting in a way that can only be described as crying, something they had never done before. Their wailing subsided for a while but then started up again about an hour later and Aniwat was unable to comfort them. The elephants with tourists aboard started running for the jungle-clad hill a bit further inland and the ones that were not working, broke their chains and started running as the wave was coming. The mahouts managed to turn the elephants in order to pick up more tourists and the huge beasts used their trunks to pluck the foreigners from the ground and gently deposit them on their backs. About 12 tourists were carried to safety by these amazing animals.

This is not the first time elephants have been known to save humans' lives. Whether Indian or African, there is no doubt that elephants are very special animals. Two brothers living on neighbouring farms here in Zimbabwe believe that their elephants saved their lives. Very late one night during the land invasions, the one brother was awoken by a commotion outside his bedroom window. He looked out and saw one of his elephants there, apparently quite distressed. He went outside to see what was wrong and the elephant pushed and nudged him away from the farm house. A trifle confused, he followed the elephant down the road and at the turn off to his brother's farm, he met up with his brother who was accompanied by more elephants. His brother told him that the elephants had done exactly the same thing to him. Whilst they were away from their farmhouses, the war vets invaded and ransacked their homes. If they had still been asleep in their beds, it is quite likely they would have been killed and they believe the elephants saved their lives. Because of this, they have gone to great expense to relocate their elephants to a safer area.

The point of these stories is that the Zimbabwe's wildlife management authority have firm plans to cull our elephants according to the article "Elephants in Zimbabwe worry officials" by United Press International

The only part of this article that we agree with is the part about animal rights groups opposing the plans to reduce the elephant population because no proper census had been carried out. The double counting of elephants in Zimbabwe and Botswana, thereby inflating elephant numbers, is of serious concern. Also of grave concern is the extrapolations used for determining elephant numbers. Some seem to think that you will find as many elephants away from water sources as you will find close to them, which, clearly, is outrageous thinking. These kinds of extrapolations also inflate elephant numbers. We most certainly do OPPOSE their plans very strongly. We challenge them to explain how they arrived at their figure of 100 000 elephants when we are certain that they have not been counted properly.

We have received numerous emails over the past year from tourists asking where all the elephants are because they saw very few. We have had reports about the Warden of Main Camp, Hwange National Park, himself expressing concern about lack of elephant sightings during 2004. This national park houses our biggest elephant population. It is a well known fact that the poachers and illegal hunters in this country are responsible for driving the smaller species to extinction and not the elephants. The bush is riddled with wire snares. Just last week, one of our members in Bumi found 17 snares on one of the islands in Kariba. 13 of them had dead rotting animals lying beside them and had been reset waiting for new victims. The poachers could be forgiven for being hungry, but what is the meaning of leaving an animal in a snare until it rots and then tossing it aside like garbage?

During my last trip to Hwange National Park, in October last year, I drove right through the game park and came across several pans full of water. Most of them were surrounded by lush vegetation that had obviously not been disturbed by anything as large as an elephant and in total, I saw 15 elephant in the game park and this was the hottest, driest month of the year, when elephant sightings are at their peak. Once outside the game park, in the Hwange Estate area, I saw 2 more families of about 15 elephants each.

Governor Orbert Mpofu and members of his family are still in control of parts of the Hwange Estate, despite orders to vacate the area and hand the land over to National Parks. His hunting permits and quotas have been revoked but even the police in the area seem incapable of stopping them from shooting the animals. It seems the so called "law" applies to some and not to others. The police are currently investigating yet another illegally killed elephant on the Hwange Estate.

In conclusion, we appeal to all you concerned people out there to help me to try and stop the authorities from culling our elephants until such time as they can categorically prove we have too many. But how many is too many? How many of the Zimbabwe elephant numbers overlap with those already counted in Botswana? Studies have proven the high intelligence levels and close family bonds of elephants. Can we sit back and tolerate their slaughter? What alternatives have been considered by the parks authority?

If you would like to help me apply some pressure, you can voice your outrage by emailing the Minister of Tourism and Natural Resources, Francis Nhema on fnhema@ecoweb.co.zw.

THE ELEPHANTS HAVE NO VOICE. THEY NEED OURS - URGENTLY. PLEASE HELP ME FIGHT THIS BATTLE.

Visit the ZCTF fact sheet

Please credit www.kubatana.net if you make use of material from this website. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License unless stated otherwise.

TOP