Stray jumbos killed

Mashonaland Central Correspondent
TWO stray elephants that were among a herd of six that had wreaked havoc in Mbire District where they trampled three people to death were gunned down last week.

Mbire Member of National Assembly Cde Douglas Karoro confirmed the killing of the two elephants that had killed three people in Mushumbi, Masoka and Angwa.

He said the elephants were spotted a few metres from the District Administrator’s Office and Mbire Rural District Council’s chief executive officer Mr Claudius Majaya alerted rangers from Zimparks who responded swiftly and tried to scare them away.

“The two elephants were gunned down after they tried to charge at the parks rangers,” said Cde Karoro. “The other four elephants managed to escape. The meat was shared among the villagers.”

Cde Karoro called on Zimparks to allow Mbire Rural District Council to sell some of the wild animals to other areas as a way of reducing their population.

“Proceeds from these animal sales could be used for development projects in the constituency and there should be a mechanism by Zimparks to compensate people killed by wild animal,” he said.