ZAWA urged to crop terrorizing wild animals

-Chieftainess Chiawa of the Goba speaking people in Kafue district has appealed to government direct Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) to intensify patrols in her chiefdom to control the number of animals that are allegedly on the ‘loose’. 

Chieftainess Chiawa says elephants, hippos and crocodiles are terrorizing the innocent people in her chiefdom by either killing them or eating up their crops such as cassava, maize, millet and sweet potatoes grown in their fields.

Speaking with ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today, the traditional leader expressed worry that the number of people in her area will be wiped out in the near future hence the need for ZAWA to became proactive and crop the mammals and reptiles in the Lower Zambezi National Park and Zambezi River in her area. 

The traditional leader further lamented that some villagers have shifted from their fields for fear of being attacked and killed by the said wild animals.

Chieftainess Chiawa said government should find a lasting solution to the animal/human conflict that has been going on for sometime now. 

She cited that a man of Mungwerumeno was a fortnight ago trampled to death by a lonely elephant and this is not the first time that a mammal has terrorized her subjects in her chiefdom.

“I’m calling on ZAWA to intensify patrols to protect my subjects from being terrorized unnecessarily but the ZAWA Scout officers were not doing so,” Chieftainess Chiawa lamented. 

She disclosed that she had had an audience with both government and ZAWA officials over the matter but seemed the authorities were taking long to address the matter.

Efforts to get a comment from ZAWA authorities proved futile by press time.