Earth Watch Report - Hazmat - Animal Advocacy - Poaching
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HAZMAT in Zimbabwe on Monday, 23 September, 2013 at 14:24 (02:24 PM) UTC.
| Description |
| Zimbabwe's
government said Monday that a "poaching syndicate" has killed at least
81 elephants, unknown numbers of buffalos and kudus by poisoning in the
country's largest national park. Six suspects were arrested two weeks
ago but the scale of the cyanide-poisoning has only gradually unfolded
as more elephant carcasses were discovered in the sprawling Hwange
National Park. Authorities on Monday warned "huge spiral effects" as
primary predators like lions, vultures, and others that feed on the
contaminated elephants carcasses would be poisoned as well. Police
revealed that the syndicate, led by a South African businessman, mixed
up a combination of cyanide, salt and water and poured the cocktail in
about 35 salt licks at watering holes known to be frequented by
elephants. At other watering holes the poachers would dig holes and
place containers containing the deadly mixture into the holes.
Zimbabwe's newly appointed Minister of Environment, Water and Climate
Savior Kasukuwere declared a "war" against poaching. "We declare zero
tolerance to poaching. We must put a stop to this. We cannot continue
with this non-sense," state media quoted Kasukuwere as saying after he
went to inspect the ecological impact of the poisoning -- his second
trip in a week. Tourism and Hospitality Minister Walter Mzembi, who
accompanied Kasukuwere to Hwange, described the poisoning as case as
"murder" of Zimbabwe's our wildlife and pledged to take the fight to
those international source markets. Hwange, spanning 14,651 square
kilometers, is home to about 50, 000 African elephants. Over the years,
elephant population in Africa has been rapidly declining due to rampant
poaching. Zimbabwe is among a few countries, mostly in southern Africa,
that still have a significant number of elephants. The Zimbabwean
government allows ivory trade in the domestic market, but puts strong
restrictions on exporting the ivory products. The country's law provides
maximum 11 years in prison for people convicted of poaching. |
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More
than 80 elephants have died as a result of cyanide poisoning at the
Hwange National Park, in what is being described as serious crisis for
the park.
Nine suspected members of a poaching syndicate have been
arrested since the first of the elephant carcasses were discovered late
last month. The carcasses were discovered after national parks
authorities teamed up with police to track suspected poachers, after
hearing gunfire in the park.
Investigations by the police resulted
in the grisly discovery of the elephants, with their tusks removed.
Further investigations led the police to nearby Mafu homestead, where
six suspected members of the poaching gang were arrested and 17 elephant
tusks were recovered.
According to authorities, the poaching
syndicate laced salt licks with cyanide and placed the salt at main
water sources where the Hwange elephants drink.
Since then, a
large scale operation has been launched resulting in three more arrests
and the discovery of even more elephants remains.
Johnny
Rodrigues, the chairman of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force (ZCTF)
said the situation is “very serious.” He told SW Radio Africa that greed
and corruption was to blame for allowing poaching to reach such serious
levels.
“The repercussions are just so big. All the carnivores in
the park like your lions, your leopards, the birds, they will all have
perished too from eating the elephant meat,” Rodrigues said.
He added: “The situation is just going to get worse and something needs to be done to stop the carnage.”
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