Plans to relocate herd of elephants after Phongola poaching incidents
Plans to relocate herd of elephants after Phongola poaching incidents
Nicole McCain, News24
January 19, 2023
Plans are being laid to relocate a herd of elephants in the Phongola Nature
Reserve, following five incidents of poaching in six months.
If a new home can be found for the, the elephants will be relocated within
the next six months, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife said.
Ezemvelo said the relocation was a means to intervene in the "long-standing
human-wildlife conflict" with elephants from a privately-owned game reserve
that have travelled into Ezemvelo's Phongola Nature Reserve. Almost 70
elephants are now roaming the reserve.
"The ongoing human-wildlife conflict in that area has contributed to the
rise of elephant poaching incidents," Ezemvelo spokesperson Musa Mntambo
said.
The elephants first started roaming out of the private game reserve to
Phongola around 2015, when the Phongola River dried up. The private game
reserve was authorised to introduce elephants in 1997 by the then Natal
Parks Board, Mntambo said.
By November 2016, these elephants had found their way to the Eastern Shores
section of Phongola Nature Reserve.
Mntambo said the elephants have "been multiplying over the years" and are
"destroying the Phongola Nature Reserve biodiversity".
Discussions on an amicable resolution over the years and the privately
owned reserve relocating the elephants back to its property "have failed",
said Mntambo.
He added: To date, there has been some reluctance by the [private reserve]
to relocate the elephants to their facility.
Ezemvelo will now engage with the privately owned reserve to have the
elephants relocated to their property, or have them rehomed at "any
national and international protected areas".
"The first batch will probably be translocated in March/April 2023 should
the new protected areas be secured. It may take more than a year to
translocate them outside of the country if no suitable space is available
within the country," Mntambo said.
The relocation will be funded by non-government organisations, Conservation
Solutions and the Aspinall Foundation.
Ezemvelo Acting CEO Siphesihle Mkhize said that "elephants are a big
problem, not only in KwaZulu-Natal but in South Africa as a whole".
"We no longer have sufficient land to keep them. The sooner the land issue
for elephants is addressed, the better, as they are also animals that cause
many human-wildlife conflicts. I also appeal to protected areas with extra
space for elephants to contact us. We will donate the elephants," he said.
Ezemvelo has already engaged with the local community through its
traditional authority and various stakeholders to discuss the recent
human-wildlife conflict affecting areas adjacent to the nature reserve,
including Galweni, Mpondwana and Mombeni.
Last week, poaching in the nature reserve came under the spotlight when
suspected poachers opened fire on a group of people, including tourists, on
a boat on the eastern shore of the Jozini Dam.
News24 previously reported that the guests were cruising in a boat on the
dam when the poachers, reported to have been hunting elephants in the area,
opened fire.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said the
victims were on a sightseeing tour on the boat when a group started
shooting at wildlife. Realising that they were being watched, the poachers
opened fire on the boat.
No one was injured in the incident.
An elephant was also reportedly killed in front of guests on New Year's
Day, News24 previously reported.