The Sunday News
I am appealing to the Government through the relevant department to assist rural villagers whose homesteads are situated near game parks as they have continued to lose their domestic animals to stray wild animals such as lions, leopards and hyenas.
Many rural villagers have been complaining about stray lions and leopards which are terrorising villagers by attacking and killing domesticated animals such as donkeys, cattle, sheep and even dogs and chickens.
In Beitbridge alone for example it is known that some parts of the district have some dangerous animals which include very poisonous snakes but nothing has so far been done to protect these innocent villagers.
We really don’t know why it is taking long just to hunt down these dangerous animals before they cause more havoc in the area.
Some of the families have even lost all of their livestock as a result of these merciless and hungry wild animals.
Some of the stray animals like elephants have left some villagers in Plumtree starving after they destroyed their crops in the fields as well as granaries.
Although we all know that there is drought in the country at the moment it is so disturbing to see that stray elephants have worsened the already bad situation by destroying the few crops which the villagers were expecting to harvest.
These elephants also killed three people including a pregnant woman in the Shashane area and villagers have blamed rangers from the department of parks and wildlife for not responding in good time whenever they have been approached by the villagers to come to their rescue.
We hope to see a change in future because villagers can no longer afford to continue losing their domestic animals and crops as a result of these stray animals.
