By Sifelani Murambiwa.
Save Valley, Zimbabwe. (News Of The South) – Villagers under Chief Gudo are calling upon government to sanction Wildlife Concessions’ in Save Valley Conservancy to install perimeter fence as they continue losing their livestock to stray predators such as lions and hyenas without compensation.
Since January, the community said they have lost over forty cattle, fifteen donkeys and several goats and sheep to prides of lions.
Chief Gudo said there is need for quick reaction by conservancy owners in fencing their wild life sanctuary to avoid continuous loss.
“The conservancy is not fenced especially Impala and Zvinavashe Ranch, we just wonder why they keep these dangerous animals if they cannot protect them from interfering with our communities,” he said.
“So far 42 cattle ,15 donkeys,over 100 goats have been killed just in 2017. So till December what will be left? It’s a pride of two and other one of six and peoples lives are now spared from this risk.”
He added that it was unfortunate that the international community was advocating for the ban of sport hunting on lions while they are not considering the dangers paused by these animals to surrounding communities.
“Parks last week deployed a team of ranchers to react to reports which we had made. Honestly speaking, their reaction to reports of poaching are very vigorous compared to what they do if our livestock are killed. We are also appealing to the international world to lift the ban of lion hunts since they are causing a lot of problems to our livestock and ourselves.” he added.
Acting Chiredzi District Administrator Mr Ndeya Nyede however said most cases of attacks on livestock are going unreported since villagers are taking it upon themselves to fight the lions.
“Its unfortunate that our villagers are not reporting most cases of livestock being attacked by either lions or hyenas. As a district, we continue to urge them to quickly make reports through their councillors or villager development communities and this will allow us to contact parks for a timely reaction,” said Mr Nyede.
Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority Ms Caroline Washaya however said she was still attending to questions relating to the unavailability of a perimeter fence and issues of compensation.
“We are still attending to your request, we will send through mail our response,” she said.
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