Durban – Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has issued a warning to northern KwaZulu-Natal communities about elephants from outside the province.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesperson Musa Mntambo said the entity is asking the community around Ndumo Game Reserve (Ndumo GR) in the northern parts of KZN to be vigilant and immediately report any sighting of elephants in their area to Ezemvelo.
“If sighted, people must avoid confrontation with elephants and call the authorities,” Mntambo said.
He explained that the elephants, which are from Mozambique and other regions around Mpumalanga and eSwatini, enter South Africa through the international northern boundary of KZN and Mozambique.
The elephants follow a historical migration route between Mpumalanga, eSwatini, Mozambique, and South Africa. Historically, this movement of elephants included Tembe Elephant Park (TEP), which did not generate any concern or risk as the park is a suitable elephant habitat, with its perimeter fencing designed to keep elephants within it.
He said as a departure from the norm, the elephants have recently started to enter South Africa via the northern boundary of Ndumo GR, which is not, as opposed to TEP, a suitable elephant habitat reserve.
“Ndumo perimeter fencing was not designed to keep elephants within it. The consequence of this is that the elephants transverse easily through Ndumo GR and down the south or east of the reserve into South Africa’s community land, causing damage to property and crops. They also pose a great risk should they come into contact with humans as such contact may have a high probability of severe injury or even death,” Mntambo continued.
He said that while Ezemvelo does monitor the elephants to try to prevent them from entering community land, there is always a risk that they may walk out of Ndumo GR into community land.
Mntambo went on to say that recently, five elephants walked out of the southern boundary into community land and despite efforts to push them back into Ndumo GR, wandered off 16km south and became an extreme risk to human life and therefore had to be destroyed by Ezemvelo staff in terms of a standing permit issued under the provision of the National Environment Management Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004.
Ezemvelo acting chief executive Sihle Mkhize said: “Our monitoring work has observed exponential growth of this movement into Ndumo GR in the past seven days, which has triggered a need for a concerted effort together with partners to resolve the matter speedily. To this end, we are currently working with several stakeholders in Mozambique, Mpumalanga, and South Africa, including through consultation with local traditional structures to ensure that this matter is resolved and that these elephants are eventually moved out of Ndumo GR.”
Mkhize said that given the migration into Ndumo GR is a new phenomenon, several steps are being undertaken to manage the situation, including undertaking rapid assessment to establish the actual numbers of the population currently inside the Ndumo GR and to confirm the factors that are influencing this slight diversion from the original migration route to enhance management’s adaptive action to this phenomenon.
“We can confirm that there are still elephants in the Ndumo Game Reserve, and Ezemvelo will do all it can to ensure the safety of both the affected communities and elephants alike. Given the current fluidity of the situation, there is always the risk that they may rapidly move out of Ndumo GR and become a risk to property, crops, and human life,” Mkhize said.
Mntambo added that elephant-induced human-wildlife conflict is generally increasing in South Africa. There has been an increase in human-wildlife conflict incidents around protected areas such as Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, Ithala Game Reserve, and the Kruger National Park.
He said that in some areas, the incidents have become a great risk to human well-being, such as the case of an escape involving Pongola Private Game Reserve elephants last year. At the time, elephants crossed the border between eSwatini and Pongola and such incidents highlight what is a broad South African issue that requires critical discussion to explore all the available options in the elephant management toolbox, including sustainable utilisation.
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