KNP asked to remove warthogs
The community in Giyani has appealed to the management of Kruger National Park to come and remove warthogs, which are said to be ravaging fields
LIMPOPO – It would appear that wild pigs are in the middle of a discussion between villagers and management of Kruger National Park. The community in Giyani has appealed to the management of Kruger National Park to come and remove warthogs, which are said to be ravaging fields at Nkomo and Ngove villages.
Speaking at the community consultative meeting held on Friday in Giyani, near the Kruger National Park (KNP), a resident from Nkomo village, Richard Mathebula, said they were losing crops to warthogs, and appealed to the park to find a way to remove the animals from their area.
“We’re losing on our harvest because there are warthogs that roam around ravaging our fields everyday, even as I speak they are there and we cannot shoot them because we will be arrested us for doing so,” he said.
In response, the Kruger National Park General Manager for People and Conservation, Helen Mmethi, said in its initial compensation plan, the park did not consider how to deal with damage caused by wild animals other than lions and hyenas, but would however consider this in future.
“We had not anticipated animals such as warthogs and elephants damaging the fields, hence we overlooked that kind of damage when we did our initial compensation plan, however, although I cannot promise anything at this stage, in future we will see how best we can deal with such cases,” she said.
Other issues that the community wanted clarification on were why they were not compensated for the damage caused by a leopard, despite proof of such damage.
“We want to know why we are not compensated for the leopard’s kill,” asked Eric Ngobeni, a resident whose village boarders the KNP fence.
In response Helen Mmethi said the park’s policy contained a clause that stated that the park did not pay for claims that emanate from a leopard’s kill, but that there was however another clause that stated that the park could pay, depending on the special circumstances of the damage.
“And these circumstances will be when the leopard has killed, and the rangers from Ledet confirm to us that there was a known existence of a leopard in the area.
“Other than that we currently only compensate for the damage caused by hyenas and lions.”
