Online Reporter
Elephants pose probably the greatest challenge to people living near their habitats in Matabeleland North Province.
In Hwange and Victoria Falls, they destroy crops, deplete water sources and sometimes stomp humans to death.
They, indeed, pose a real, permanent threat to the food security of people in that area and their lives. Even lions don’t pose that sort of threat.
Whenever the giants move out of Hwange or Victoria Falls national parks to adjacent villagers in search of forage or water, the people are helpless.
They scramble themselves to “safety”, calling ZimParks on erratic mobile phone connections for them to come and put down the animals.
Sometimes the network fails, and logistical and resource challenges hamper prompt responses from ZimParks.
It is hell on earth for our people up there.
However, as we report elsewhere today, a Victoria Falls tour operator has pioneered a cost-effective, simple, permanent and eco-friendly approach to keeping the jumbos away from communities.
EleCrew is not deploying boots on the ground, arming villagers with guns or something like that.
It is deploying bees, just bees. An unlikely solution indeed!
The operator which runs an elephant interaction venture in the resort city has established 50 beehives in the Skabelo area.
The buzzers are keeping the elephants at bay, which is reassuring enough.
In addition, villagers are harvesting honey from the hives.
“Before the beehives, elephants would come at night and destroy our entire harvest in hours,” a villager, Mrs Tryphine Moyo, told us.
“We would wake up to flattened fields and nothing to feed our children.
“This season, we saw elephants approaching, but as soon as they touched the hives, the bees chased them away.
We have harvested enough maize and vegetables for the first time in years. Our grandchildren are eating well.”
Encouraged by the success of the initiative in Skabelo, EleCrew aims to extend it to Woodlands, also close to Victoria Falls.
We laud the company for rolling out this simple solution to what was a complex, life-threatening challenge. Now, people’s lives and their crops are safer, their food security intact.
The bees are giving them honey, which is a healthy food and a source of income.
The project has a multiplier effect that extends to the adjacent environment as well, given the role that bees naturally play in the health of vegetation and crops.
It would be great if EleCrew extended the initiative to other areas where elephants terrorise people, including in villages around Hwange National Park.
Other companies and communities can set up bee hives around their farms or homes without EleCrew’s direct involvement.
This initiative has taught us that sometimes effective solutions to enormous challenges aren’t loud, elaborate and expensive; just a buzz to the ear and a painless sting here and there.
