Elephant herd removed from wild in Malawi

A herd of 83 elephants were relocated from the wild to a reserve following years of violent clashes with people in Malawi.

The move required a fleet of cranes and lorries and was organised by workers at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

They stepped in when the free-roaming animals suffered violent retaliation from local people after unknowingly causing havoc by marauding through villages - trampling several people to death and destroying crops and homes.


IFAW spokesman Jason Bell-Leask said: "This is a victory for both elephants and people - they have been engaged in a battle that has seen elephants cruelly wounded and killed, and many local people killed as well.

"Moving the elephants was, without argument, the only solution to a terrible situation for both the elephants and the community."

The elephant evacuation took a month to complete at a cost of £200,000 and is believed to be the biggest ever deliberate mass relocation of the animals.

It followed years of conflict between the elephants and their human neighbours near the town of Mangochi in southern Malawi.

For centuries the herd had roamed freely in an area south of Lake Malawi, but since the 1960s had seen their homeland increasingly populated by the country's growing human population.

Instances of elephants trampling crops or destroying homes in the agriculture-dependant state led to a series of violent attacks on the beasts by villagers desperate to defend their property.

Experts believe dozens of elephants died in the conflict. The situation also claimed several human lives, with at least 20 farmers believed to have been trampled to death since 2004.

The evacuation procedure began on June 8 and was organised in partnership with Malawi's government.

Fourteen separate groups of the animals were sedated by vets, picked up by cranes and moved on lorries to Majete Wildlife Reserve at Malawi's south eastern tip.

Workers said many of the elephants were visibly injured following the conflict with their human neighbours.

Twelve of the groups included animals that had suffered injuries caused by human intervention - including seven elephants with trunk amputations caused by snares, one with a deformed foot from a gin trap injury, and one that was blind in one eye from a gunshot wound.

Three of the elephants were still trapped inside snares and had to have the heavy metal clamps removed from their legs. Several others bore scars from bullet wounds.

The elephants' new home is a secured wildlife reserve where they can live without fear of attack.

Mr Bell-Leask added: "The relocation of these elephants is proof that it's not necessary to solve issues of human-wildlife conflict down the barrel of a gun.

"IFAW partnered with the government of Malawi on this epic project to move the elephants from otherwise certain death.

"We believe the Malawi government has set an example for taking an ethical approach to elephant management practices - one that all governments facing challenges of human-wildlife conflict should consider."