At least four more people have died after an elephant translocation overseen by two wildlife organisations, including one that was reported to be headed by Prince Harry, in a protected area in Malawi.
According to reports, the recent deaths bring the total fatalities connected to the relocated elephants to seven.
Recall that In July 2022, more than 250 elephants were moved from Liwonde national park in southern Malawi to the country’s second-largest protected area, Kasungu, in a three-way operation between Malawi’s national park service and two NGOs: the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), and African Parks. Prince Harry was president of African Parks for six years, before being elevated to the board of directors from 2023.
The movement of elephants was said to be among the largest of its kind ever attempted, the conservation groups said at the time. The groups used images of the 263 elephants being transported for fundraising, and videos of the huge animals being lifted by crane were described as “scenes reminiscent of the Disney classic Dumbo”.
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In the days after the translocation, however, two people were killed by elephants in the area the animals were moved to, and a third person was killed in September that year. Communities warned of growing problems with human-wildlife conflict with the African mammals, which frequently raid crops.
A community leader accused the wildlife NGOs of caring more about animals than people after the move. An electric fence to protect people on the edge of the park had not been completed, he said, highlighting that the elephants had been moved from a protected area that already had a fence. Ifaw and the Malawian national park service contest that this was a condition of the translocation. African Parks disputed that the movement of the elephants had been rushed.
31-year-old Masiye Phiri was reported to have been killed and her two-year-old child was injured when they were charged by a bull elephant in a garden after a group had left the park boundaries on the Malawian side of the park in June 2023.
Also, In August 2023, Jackson Banda was killed by an elephant, again after several elephants got out of the park. The next month, Boniface Nkhoma was attacked by elephants at night while walking on a road when the mammals had again gone beyond the park boundaries.
Story was adapted from the Guardian.
