Elephants continue to wreak havoc in northern Namibia

WINDHOEK, May 11 (Xinhua) -- The Ministry Environment on Thursday said that it has deployed ministry officials to assist farmers in affected areas to avoid and minimize damages in northern Namibia, following a spate of incidents that involved elephants.

The ministry's spoke person, Romeo Muyunda said currently the officials are doing a situation analysis that will inform the ministry on what course of action to take.

Muyunda said of late the ministry has been concerned with the escalating cases of human wildlife conflict as well as reports of elephants destroying field crops.

"The ministry believes that the herd is being led by an aggressive elephant and a directive was given to officials on the ground to identify it. once identified it will be recommended to be declared a problem animal," he said.

According to Muyunda once the elephant is declared a problem, the ministry will have to hunt it down and the proceeds will be given to the affected communities and farmers.

Human wildlife conflicts cases have become frequent in the northern regions and the ministry has committed resources to tackle the challenges. despite the high prevalence of these incidents, Muyunda urged community members not to take the law in their own hands and work with ministry officials instead.

Currently Namibia is reviewing the Human Wildlife management policy in order to come up with region-specific responses to deal with the challenges.