Human-Elephant conflict project expands – by Dr Emily Bennitt

DWNP helps us across the river

This morning started with a lovely boat ride across the Boteti from the ever-helpful DWNP staff at the Khumaga gate. James, our newly started PhD student, and I went to meet the chief of Khumaga to introduce ourselves and make sure that the chief is aware of James’ planned work with the community. Everything went very well and when asked for advice on hiring some staff members, the chief pointed us in the direction of Mankind, of the Village Development Community. Khumaga seems to be a very well-organised community that keeps a close track of income from housing rentals and other community endeavours, such as the butchers and the post office. After our chat with Mankind, we met with KK, the man in charge of the Human-Wildlife Co-existence project that is operating along the Boteti, with a focus on the Khumaga and Moreomoato communities. He was preparing for next week’s workshops in the two villages, with a pile of beehives and several bags of crushed chillies. These are two mitigation techniques to prevent crop-raiding by elephants that are currently being trialled in the communities, something that Elephants for Africa is very invested in. KK showed us the chilli plants growing in dedicated greenhouses, and assured us that they are very hot! We will form closer ties with this project next week, when we attend the community workshops. Our day of meetings was not quite over, as we arranged to cross the Boteti river to meet the managers at Leroo la Tau, who have kindly allowed us to use their access gate and crossing to travel in and out of the national park, so that we can avoid the somewhat exorbitant ferry charges. I had observed elephants crossing the river at that point previously, so knew that the water was not too deep. After identifying the correct route with a little paddling, we surged across without any difficulties. Nelson, the Leroo la Tau manager, was very friendly and interested in all of our projects, so we look forward to a good relationship with the camp in the future.