Communal farmers in Midlands province’s Lower Gweru area said they have lost 26 head of cattle to a pride of lions that invaded the area over the past few weeks.
The farmers also said they had lost a substantial amount of crops to elephants.
Smart Mparangi Msipa of Bambanani Village 4, said:
“If I am not mistaken, we have seen over 40 elephants here and we cannot sleep because of them. Sleeping while the elephants are around is dangerous because they sometimes destroy our huts. They also destroy our granaries and eat our grain.”
Another villager, who identified herself only as Mawere, of Cres resettlement area, about 40km from Gweru, said about 73 elephants had been terrorising the area for the past month and they had tried in vain to call the National Parks and Wildlife Management officials.
“About 73 elephants have caused massive destruction in the villages while there are also three lions which have so far killed about 26 cattle in the resettlement area,” said Mawere.
National Parks and Wildlife Management spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo last week asked NewsDay to provide written questions but had not responded to at the time of going to print.
