A charity has been accused of dumping 263 elephants in a park in Zambia and allowing them to kill people and cause millions of dollars worth of damage to farmers’ crops.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was accused of carrying out ‘an imperial model of conservation’, after it moved the elephant parade from Liwonde National Park, in Malawi, to Kasungu National Park, also in Malawi, which borders Zambia. in July 2022.
But since then, the huge animals have killed at least nine people in the area surrounding the park and caused an estimated $3 million in damage to crops by eating or trampling them.
Mike Labuschagne, a former IFAW law enforcement officer in Kasungu, told the Financial Times that IFAW should pay compensation to people affected by the move.
‘If an African NGO released 263 hyenas into the suburbs of London and 18 months later nine people had been killed by those hyenas, what do you think the reaction would be?’ he said.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) was accused of carrying out ‘an imperial model of conservation’
The transfer program took place in July 2022.
IFAW is one of the largest animal conservation NGOs in the world.
IFAW is one of the largest animal conservation NGOs in the world and spent $127 million on conservation projects last year alone, having raised funds from the EU, USAID and the Disney Conservation Fund.
IFAW’s elephant transfer, considered one of the largest of its kind, was part of a project to alleviate environmental stress facing Liwonde National Park.
In the video of the transfer, the elephants are seen receiving tranquilizers in Liwonde, before being taken to Kasungu in huge trucks.
In the transfer program, Kasungu also received 80 buffalo, 128 impala, 33 sable, 81 wild boar and 109 antelope from Liwonde.
But the elephants, which each need to eat up to 150kg of food a day and can weigh up to seven tonnes, rampaged through the region, destroying homes and grain warehouses in search of food, locals told the Financial Times.
Abraham Phiri told the newspaper that his father Andrew, a farmer in his sixties, was trampled to death by a large parade of elephants while working his land near Zambia’s border with Malawi.
“He was old and couldn’t run well. He fell and was trampled to death,” he said, adding that when he called the authorities all they did was call for a coffin.
Elephants need to eat up to 150 kg of food a day and can weigh up to seven tons (File image)
Locals have been forced to stay awake at all hours banging pots and pans or lighting fireworks to scare away the elephants and protect their land (File Image).
Another farmer, Levison Banda, said his farm income dropped hugely after elephants started invading his field.
“These animals come from Malawi but they bring problems to Zambia,” he said.
Neither the Malawi nor Zambia governments pay compensation for elephant attacks, but they will be happy to promote the benefits of elephant translocations for tourism in the region.
Locals are also afraid to send their children to school or go to the bathroom after dark, for fear of being trampled.
As a result, locals have been forced to stay up at all hours banging pots and pans or setting off fireworks to scare away the elephants and protect their land.
But they will soon have to resort to more extreme measures, as one farmer warned: “If no one does anything, there will be a war between man and animal.”
MailOnline has contacted the International Fund for Animal Welfare for comment.