The Sunday News
Tendai Bhebe, Sunday News Reporter
TWENTY people died last year from animal attacks, a 50 percent decrease from 40 who died in 2017, an official has said.
Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Mr Tinashe Farawo said despite the decrease, his organisation was continuing with awareness campaigns to reduce human-wildlife conflict.
“The cases are decreasing because in 2017 we lost 40 people with 30 injuries and in 2018 we lost 20 as a result of human-wildlife conflict. However, nearly 40 percent are human-elephant conflicts,” he said.
Mr Farawo said Zimparks was working with different communities especially those near national parks to reduce incidents of human-animal conflicts.
“We’re working with communities on human-wildlife conflict and the trend in terms of conflict has been going down because of efforts that we have been putting to educate communities on the dangers wildlife can pose to human life. Our communities are encouraged to stay away from animals which are not pets, they should not feed them because they can kill you. If people see animals they should let us know and we attend to the location to deal with them. Again people must avoid travelling at night because they are exposing themselves to these animals, especially lions as most wild animals are active at night,” he said.
He said crocodiles were also among major killers.
“We have received more cases about crocodiles as they are the major killers. A person can outpace a crocodile but unfortunately most people who are killed by crocodiles, it’s either they will be fishing, swimming or crossing rivers. People should be cautious when approaching all water bodies,” he said.
Mr Farawo said people have lost crops and livestock to wild animals.
“Between 2013 to 2018 at least 7 000 hectares of crops were destroyed by animals. Some people have lost hundreds of cattle, goats and donkeys, hence people should build cattle strong pens so that their animals are safe,” he said.
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