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Malawi poachers poison elephants for ivory

  • Poison also affecting smaller animals

While government uses armed game-rangers to fight elephant poaching, the people committing the crime in and around Liwonde National Park, in Southern Malawi have devised another way of killing the beasts softly—by poisoning them.

Endangered: A wounded elephant captured in Liwonde National Park
Endangered: A wounded elephant captured in Liwonde National Park

Although the extent of threat posed to the population of elephants in the country’s second largest national park, bordering Machinga, Balaka and Mangochi cannot be ascertained, our investigations indicate the trend has been thriving for a while.

Parks officials say the first carcass of an elephant killed by poisoning was spotted with its tusks removed along the park’s boundary in 2013.

“Since then, four elephants have officially been recorded as having been poisoned and their ivory taken away,” Liwonde National Park manager Blessings Msikuwanga said in an interview last week.

Added Msikuwanga: “There could be more incidents than reported because we have suspicions that other cases might have occurred but were not brought to our knowledge.

“For us it depends on the number of carcasses that we find and upon examination if we don’t get a bullet or any wound on its body we conclude it to be poison.”

Since 2012, the park has also recorded five deaths due to wire snaring, one to gin trap and six to natural causes.

Malawi’s  has  a population of slightly over 1 000 elephants, the majority of which are in Liwonde National Park.

 

–The Poison–

The initial information Weekend Nation received was that communities were poisoning elephants because they caused destruction of crops, property and loss of life.

However, it turns the villagers are motivated by good monies from poachers believed to be from Mangochi, Blantyre, Salima, Lilongwe and Mozambique, among other places, to poison the elephants for their ivory.

During the visit, Weekend Nation discovered that poachers give villagers a pinkish,  pungent liquid  — suspected to be sourced from Mozambique — which is delivered in small plastic tubes.

The poison is inserted into pumpkins or sprinkled on maize cobs and husks in the gardens. These are then strategically placed along elephants’ trails for their easy consumption.

A villager from Mangamba Village, who declined to be identified disclosed that some people are offered as much as K50 000 to set the poison trap.

Several others from Mangamba and Chikuluma villages in Senior Chief Liwonde in Machinga also confirmed that poisoning of elephants is common in the area.

Just last week, a villager who was collecting pumpkins in his field discovered poison in one pumpkin and surrendered it to game rangers.

The poison was found in Wadi Village in the area of GVH Mangamba. Assistant parks and wildlife officer Finlay Zumba said a few months ago another poisoned pumpkin was discovered in Chilemba Village in SGVH Chikuluma.

Explained Zumba: “There are several ways by which they use poison to bring down these mighty beasts. Sometimes they just stuff it in bread or discharge it in watering holes

“We sometimes notice carcasses of other smaller wild animals like water bucks and we conclude it is poison when we find that the water colour has changed.”

Zumba said they have had no success in their attempts to apprehend poachers who use poison.

 

–Booming ivory trade–

United Democratic Front MP for Balaka Central East Aufi Mpaweni said he had tried to raise an alarm about the situation with government “but nothing had been done”.

But director of parks and wildlife in the Ministry of Information, Tourism and Culture, Brighton Kumchedwa, said his department was investigating the matter.

He said the recent surge in the illicit killing of elephants was worrisome, particularly when the country was already pleading with stakeholders to help in fighting crime against wildlife.

He disclosed that Malawi is trying to tighten its parks’ controls by initiating a 10-year National Elephant Action Plan under the Elephant Protection Initiative which aims to protect elephants and strengthen efforts to crack down on poachers and traffickers who have discovered Malawi as a soft target to export ivory from.

Recently, government admitted that the country was being targeted and exploited as a source and transit route for wildlife traffickers.

Statistics indicate that between 2011 and 2014, police made 23 arrests at Kamuzu International Airport in Lilongwe alone with 69 pieces of ivory.

Meanwhile, conservationists have urged government to be vigilant in the protection of  elephants and other animals as poaching syndicates have become sophisticated

Spokesman for Lilongwe Wildlife Trust Clement Manjaalera said: “By 2025 there will be no elephants left if the current rate of poaching continues, and we cannot stand and let this happen.”

Last week, the Australian Customs and Border Protection Service intercepted 110kg of ivory allegedly en route to Malaysia from Malawi; an incident Minister of Information Kondwani Nankhumwa said was being investigated. No arrests have been made.

Malawi confiscated a large haul of ivory last year worth about K3 billion, which was set to be incinerated two weeks ago but President Peter Mutharika postponed the exercise because there is more confiscated ivory whose cases are still in courts.

According to a 2011 Economic Evaluation of Sustainable Natural Resource Use, Malawi’s “average annual economic losses due to poaching [were by 2007] in the order of K1.2 billion ($8.4 million).”

Much of the demand for ivory is in Asia, particularly China, where it is primarily used for handicraft products and its rising demand is fuelling a renewed and horrific killing of elephants in Africa.

The United States is widely considered to be the world’s second-largest destination for illegally trafficked wildlife with the European Union coming in third.

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5 Comments

  1. Thats what u get when you have a stupid government which does not understanding the true meaning of human rights. Criminals are allowed to do whatever they want in the name of human rights. Wait until there is nothing left for the so-called beautiful country. If you are caught with drugs in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Iran etc etc they simply hang u. Kill the bad apples to safe the majority from destruction. A country with nothing to celebrate from. Why cant the government deploy spies, CID to take out these criminals? If I was a president of Malawi these criminals would be prying their trade in their graves by now, may be that’s why I am not a president. Nyawu ndi anthu ake.

  2. Thats what u get when you have a stupid government which does not understanding the true meaning of human rights. Criminals are allowed to do whatever they want in the name of human rights. Wait until there is nothing left for the so-called beautiful country. If you are caught with drugs in China, Indonesia, Thailand, Iran etc etc they simply hang u. Kill the bad apples to safe the majority from destruction. A country with nothing to celebrate from. Why cant the government deploy spies, CID to take out these criminals? If I was a president of Malawi these criminals would be prying their trade in their graves by now, may be that’s why I am not a president. Nyawu ndi anthu ake.

  3. Chitsiru cha munthu. We are investigating until when???? Nthawi ya Kamuzu people were in positions commensurate with their education. Maybe this Brighton something doesnt even have the required education enable him understand the dangers of poaching to our nation. Liwonde national park is not Kruger National park and any serious government can easily contain poaching at Liwonde NP.

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