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According to the authority’s statistics, the country has about 100 000 elephants against its holding capacity of 45 000, a situation that is leading to the elephants straying to residential areas.
The awareness campaign comes in the wake of an incident where an elephant reportedly trampled to death a mother of three children in a bushy area between Mkhosana and Chinotimba townships on Sunday evening.
The woman, Mrs Margret Mudenda, of Mkhosana Township was coming from a bus terminus where she had gone to give a parcel and school fees to the bus crew that plies the Victoria Falls-Binga route to give to her children who stay in Binga.
In a statement on Wednesday, the ZNPWMA’s public relations manager Ms Caroline Washaya-Moyo said the awareness campaign was targeting schools mostly as the authority was concerned about the safety of school children.
Ms Washaya-Moyo said although they had been carrying out awareness campaigns, the programme had been intensified following the unfortunate incident in Victoria Falls.
The awareness campaign is meant to capacitate humans with knowledge about the behaviour of wild animals and how to respond to them once they stray into residential areas.
“The authority is running a schools awareness campaign programme through its extension and interpretation on wildlife behaviour. The awareness campaign began on 14 May and is targeted at all schools in the Victoria Falls Community,” said Ms Washaya-Moyo.
She said following the recent incident, the authority had intensified the programme.
“An adult female was on Sunday 10 June 2012, killed by an elephant. The unfortunate incident happened at around 10 pm and investigations reveal that residents in Mkhosana suburb heard the woman screaming for help and passersby discovered her body at 6am on Monday 11 June.
“The authority has in the past responded to reports of elephants that would have strayed into communities and has successfully driven them into the Zambezi National Park. It is suspected that it was one of the bulls that strayed back into the area. As Parks and Wildlife Management Authority we would want people to be safe and we have intensified the awareness campaign programme for people’s safety,” said Ms Washaya-Moyo.
The authority has appealed to people not to attack or feed or provoke wildlife, as they easily get irritated.
“Investigations further reveal that the elephants were being attracted into the community by fruit trees and vegetables. The authority urges the public not to travel at night and to quickly report the presence of wildlife in their areas to the nearest parks office or to the police.”
Meanwhile, Ms Washaya-Moyo said the elephant that killed the woman had since been killed as it had returned to the same community and was posing danger to residents.
“The elephant that killed the Victoria Falls woman was killed on 12 June because it was now posing danger to the community. The bull elephant was identified by blood stains on its tusks and face and was reported to have returned to the community the following day and was shot by rangers near Moringa Shopping Centre.
“Currently the country has an estimated 100 000 elephant population and its holding capacity is 45 000. The creation of Trans-Frontier Conservation Areas has, however, helped to expand the elephant range and helped greatly in allowing wildlife to move freely,” she said.
Online Reporter