A 52 year old Kariba man was early this morning morning killed by an elephant on his way to work, 263Chat has learnt.
According to residents of Baobab area the man (name withheld) was in the company of two other people when the unfortunate incident happened.
The other two, however, managed to escape with minor injuries.
“He was going to work when the elephant came charging at him . There was another man who was taking his child to school but the two managed to run away although they sustained minor injuries.
“However, the now deceased was not lucky enough as he was gored in the stomach and trampled several times on the head. His face deformed after the horrific incident,” said Clever Kostino.
When 263Chat arrived at the scene, the Zimbabwe Republic Police had just retrieved the body while residents where still milling the places trying to come to terms with the incident.
Parks and Wildlife Authority spokesperson,Tinashe Farawo confirmed the incident.
“We lost a life in another unfortunate incident. This is another life which has been lost because we all know our animals have exceeded their carrying ecological capacity.
“We have lost a lot of people due to wildlife conflict especially human-elephant conflict,” said Farawo.
He revealed that more than 200 people have been killed over the last five years.
“This year alone, this is the sixth life which had been lost and it’s very unfortunate,” Farawo added.
Kariba residents said they are living in fear as they are not being protected from wildlife by the parks authority which they accuse of protecting animals at the expense of human life.
“The parks authority has been neglecting us for a long time. They care more for wildlife. Several people have been killed here but they do nothing.
“They tell us not to kill or chase away animals because they say we invaded wildlife areas and we should learn to live in harmony with nature,” said Kostino.
Another resident said they cannot go into the bush to look for firewood as power shortages continue to bite because they fear arrests and attacks from animals.
“We do not own any pieces of land here, our source of livelihood is water and they also forbid us from fishing.
“We cannot go to chop wood from the bush because the authority will arrest us since they claim that animals own the land. We cannot even go into the bushes to do any farming because our crops will be destroyed by wild animals so we are stuck and suffering, “another resident added.
However, Farawo said the overpopulation of animals remains a big challenge while the current situation is being worsened by the climate induced drought which has seen animals competing for water and food with humans.
“We need to do something about it and we will continue to lobby so that people are protected,”Farawo assured the residents.
