The Hindu : International : Packing off the pachyderms

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Friday, Aug 26, 2005

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International

Packing off the pachyderms

Major elephant relocation programme in Kenya hits a snag

SHIMBA HILLS NATIONAL RESERVE: A planned mammoth-sized relocation of hundreds of elephants from this overcrowded coastal reserve got off to a ceremonial start here on Thursday but immediately hit a hitch as bad weather forced a new delay.

Rangers with the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS) shot a bull elephant with a tranquillizer gun to begin the huge operation dubbed "the single largest translocation of animals ever undertaken since Noah's Ark" that will eventually see 400 jumbos moved.

However, the sedated elephant was not winched as planned into a crate for the 140-km drive to the Tsavo East National Park because poor weather grounded a planned surveillance flight. "We called off the operation because of bad weather,'' said a KWS spokesman. "It was foggy and we could not get the chopper airborne. We will resume the operation tomorrow."

The $3.2-million Government-funded operation is seen as critical to saving Shimba Hills, south of the Indian Ocean port of Mombasa, where the elephant population has soared in recent years. Increasing numbers of pachyderms have caused major damage to the rare flora in Shimba Hills and is threatening its critical importance as a main water catchment area for the coast, according to the KWS.

"The relocation will save Shimba Hills... from impending ruin," senior KWS scientist Patrick Omondi, who coordinates Kenya's national elephant conservation programme, said earlier this week. Shimba Hills, which is 192 square kilometres in size, is now home to some 600 elephants but has a capacity of at most 200, while Tsavo East is about 13,747 sq km.

In Tsavo, where the elephant population was decimated by poachers in the 1970s and 1980s, the elephants will be deposited in the northern part of the park where large numbers of game wardens have been deployed to protect them.

In addition, the KWS said it had taken steps to prevent the elephants from straying onto farmland outside the perimeter of Tsavo, a concern of ranchers in the vicinity. — AFP

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