Farmer killed by elephants in southern Tanzania

ARUSHA, Tanzania, Oct.30 — A 40-year-old farmer has been killed by elephants in southern Tanzania’s district of Tunduru, authorities said on Tuesday.
Limbega Ally, Tunduru District Wildlife Officer, said the incident occurred in a remote village of Twendembele in Tunduru District, Ruvuma Region, about 1,205 kilometers from Tanzania’s commercial capital Dar es Salaam.
The wildlife official said that incident occurred on Monday evening at around 5 a.m. local time.
“On the fateful day the man was busy working on his farm located on Kapecha River bank when unidentified number of elephants attacked him,” Ally told Xinhua in a telephone interview.
The elephants are believed to have been strayed from the Selous Game Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
According to him, the deceased was attacked in an area located 2.5 kilometers from the sanctuary as the largest mammals are getting out of the reserve in search for pastures and water.
Juma Homera, Tunduru District Commissioner said: “We’ve dispatched a team of rangers into the affected areas to help return all the elephants to their natural environment.”
Homera also cited the increase in poaching incidents is among the reasons for elephants to stray from their natural environments.
In August last year, a 25-year-old grape farmer was trampled to death by a stray elephant in Tanzania’s central district of Chamwino, 187 kilometers from the country’s capital, Dodoma. – XINHUA