Chilli bombs and honeybees: Weapons in Tanzania’s human-elephant conflict
As humans encroach on wildlife spaces, it's put them on a collision course with animals like elephants, which are becoming increasingly fatal. .Animal clashes with villagers close to national parks or wildlife migratory routes have been rising in recent years.
Across Tanzania, an East African country bursting with jungles and wildlife, expanding human populations are encroaching more and more on wildlife spaces, putting people on a collision course with roaming animals in increasingly fatal events. "Elephants visited last night," Shangwel Mdee, 47, croaked, as she stood, hands on hips, among the ravaged stalks, inspecting the damage.
Experts say it's hard to pin down the exact number of continent-wide human-elephant conflict cases – which encompasses a range of negative interactions. Often, villagers grazing their cattle or looking for firewood also encounter the animals in the wilderness. Although usually peaceful, elephants can attack people when they feel threatened, tossing their victims in the air or trampling and crushing them.
"These are the main things, and on the side, we can look for mitigation measures to help people live more peacefully with the animals," said King. In Upper Kitete, a village bordering the majestic Ngorongoro Conservation Area, elephants are regular visitors. But since 2019 when conservationists have been hanging up beehives on wooden poles and then ringing them around farms like a fence, fewer of the mammals have been visiting, said John Massay, who grew up there and now collects data forThe beehive boxes hanging on wires stretched into the distance, guarding the sprouting bean and millet crops.
Delphina Barnabas, who heads the Nari women's collective – named after the acacia tree the group first met under – says the honey that farmers sell to them from the beehives is now being packaged and sold across Tanzania. "It's like cattle died, the way they treated my husband's death," she said."Even to say they're sorry, the government has not done that. This is three years since all that happened."New Drakensberg reserve will protect ancient rock art, wildlife, livelihoods, grasslands and waterThe shoemaker was forced to give up his lucrative business in Nairobi and return home after his father was killed by an elephant in August 2022 while on grazing duty.
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