Oswald Shivute And Absalom Shigwedha
3 May 2011
Residents of villages near the fence of the Etosha National Park in the Oshikoto Region are angry with conservation officials for allegedly not finding a lasting solution to marauding elephants escaping from the park.
Phillip Nghipondoka, a resident of Cham-Cham village near Oshivelo, said elephants started raiding their fields and homesteads, attacking people and destroying fences, in late March and continued to roam around the area the whole of last month.
He said several people’s mahangu fields were trampled.
“I don’t have mahangu any more in my fields and my good harvest I was expecting this year has completely been done away by these elephants. I will definitely need assistance from Government, although our area is not flooded,”said Kandume.
He accused the Ministry of Environment and Tourism of not taking their complaints about the elephants seriously.
Chrispin Nkokwena, the chief control warden for the north-central regions, said last week about five elephants had destroyed some mahangu fields at Onanke village near the Etosha National Park.
However, Nkokwena said the damage was not that severe.
He said elephants now have a strategy of sneaking out of the park at night to nearby villages and returning before the morning.
Nkokwena said they had sent a team to the village, who drove back the elephants into the park.
“The fence of the park at that side of Onanke is not electrified like at Cham-Chamu and at King Nehale,” said Nkokwena.
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