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Sydney Kawadza Mashonaland West Bureau Chief
Government has embarked on a programme to translocate at least 100 elephants from the Save Valley Conservancy to Rifa Safari area in Hurungwe, Mashonaland West Province.

The programme started at the beginning of the month and is expected to ease the pressure being exerted on the environment in the Save Valley Conservancy by the huge mammals.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson Mr Tinashe Farawo said Government subscribes to the principle of sustainable utilisation of all wildlife resources, including elephants.

He said this entails Zimparks supporting sustainable sport hunting.

“We are in the process of capturing at least 100 elephants from the South East Lowveld to the Zambezi Valley through our partnership with various stakeholders,” he said.

Mr Farawo said the elephants will be captured from Sango in the Save Valley Conservancy and translocated to the Rifa Safari area, which is also a Zimparks estate in Hurungwe.

“The capture and translocation of the elephants from these areas has been necessitated by over abundance of the species in Save Valley Conservative.

“This is a result of good management practices that we have had and also a good strong partnership with our private stakeholders, not forgetting the local community which has been living in harmony with nature,” he said.

Mr Farawo said the sustainable management of the elephants has resulted in the increase of the elephant population throughout the country.

“According to our estimates based on a national elephant aerial survey conducted in 2014, we are sitting at 83 000 elephants, which is the second largest remaining elephant population in the world after Botswana.

“If we look at the Lowveld, there has been a high concentration of elephants as opposed to the northern parts of Hurungwe. Most elephants in those areas were affected by poaching, but we have put in place mechanisms to ensure that we sustainably utilise our resources and make sure that at least we have more elephants in that area.”

Hurungwe had, historically, a large population of elephants whose numbers were affected by crime, including poaching.

“Once again as an authority, we continue to fight the problems that we have, especially the problems of poaching and we have recorded a very huge positive from these activities,” he said.

Mr Farawo also declared national parks as no-go areas for would-be poachers and other illegal activities.

Cases of poaching have been declining over the years through Government efforts to curb illegal activities against Zimbabwe’s wildlife heritage.

“These has also been necessitated by the support that we are getting from the Government and the Zimparks board and management.”