A second elephant has been butchered for its tusks by poachers in Parfuri, northern Kruger National Park,
10km in from the Mozambican and Zimbabwean borders. SANParks officials
discovered the two day old carcass with its tusks hacked out yesterday morning. No further details regarding the age or sex of the elephant were available and no suspects have as yet been arrested in connection with the crime.
This
is the second incident of elephant poaching in the Parfuri region of
Kruger in recent months, highlighting the onslaught of elephant poaching
predicted by conservationists,
who have warned that rampant poaching in neighbouring countries would
begin to spill over South African borders, and the urgent need for
heightened action by government to step up protection measures and find
solutions to a crisis that seems to be not only looming, but already
unfolding.
“Elephant
poaching has been happening for a while now in Mozambique and Zimbabwe,
so we did expect that it would at some stage reach our area,” said SANparks spokesperson William Mabasa.
The
Parfuri region of KNP is particularly vulnerable to penetration by
poachers because of its proximity to both the Mozambican and Zimbabwean
border, which makes it a prime target for criminal syndicates operating
on the other side of these borders, and a sitting duck for corrupt
customs and parks officials.
A
recent report held that rogue South African trophy hunters are also at
play in orchestrating poaching operations. Independent intelligence
sources allegedly uncovered documents implicating local safari units in
aiding and abetting Mozambican poachers by supplying them with
ammunition, finding buyers for the horns and bribing South African
officials and Mozambican politicians to facilitate the process. They
claim to have passed on the information to South African authorities,
but not to have received any feedback.
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