Kasane: An elephant carcass lies at the edge of a field in Legotlhwana village, northeast Botswana—evidence of the desperation and anger felt by a farmer whose crops have been repeatedly destroyed.
Ishmael Simasiku, 71, indignantly recounts how he was guarding his field as he does every night when an elephant broke through the perimeter fence and helped itself to his watermelons. Simasiku’s attempts to repel the elephant using torchlights and gunshots fired into the air were futile. The animal only retreated briefly and returned.
Fed up, he shot it dead on May 14. “The elephant came from the forest and was destroying my crops. The (sports hunting) ban made my life worse,” said Simasiku, holding a watermelon half-eaten by an elephant.
The retired policeman in this village near the border with Namibia has seen his corn harvest fall by about 90 percent over recent years as elephant numbers have boomed.
Under the country's wildlife conservation policy, Botswana's elephant population has increased nearly 10-fold since 1970, to 130,000 today, according to the UN Environment Programme.
As elephants grazed behind him in Chobe National Park , Thebeyakgosi Horatius, head of the park's human-wildlife conflict office, confirms that elephants are “killing people (and) destroying their crops”.
His dept runs a 24-hour emergency response team to react to elephant attacks. Last month, the government lifted a blanket hunting ban, imposed in 2014 by then-president Ian Khama, on the grounds that elephant numbers were growing.
