Taita Taveta, Kenya – For farmers in Las Colinas de Taita, in southern Kenya, elephants are a threat: they attack crops and, sometimes, hurt or even kill people.
The farmer Richard Shika, 68, has had some nearby meetings. “Once, I was trying to scare away an elephant who was in my corn field, but he turned and attacked me,” Shika recalls. “He stopped right in front of me and managed to jump to avoid it.”
He feels lucky to be alive. Almost exactly two years ago, the local media reported that a 3 -year -old girl had died trampled by an elephant in Taita Taveta and her mother was injured.
The area where Shika has its farm is almost surrounded by the largest national park in Kenya. The border of the Tsavo East National Park is less than 6 miles east, and Tsavo West is curved north, west and south. The parks have always been without fence, which allows animals to migrate. More and more, that puts them on the path of humans.
“The places and infrastructure that humans develop hinder migratory routes and roads that elephants used to take,” explains Yuka Luvonga, who investigates coexistence between humans and elephants for the Save the Elephants Conservation Organization.
The elephants eat around 330 pounds of vegetation per day, so keeping them away from the farms is complicated, especially if the fodder is scarce in other places.
“Elephants are smart creatures,” says Shika. “They will try to touch a fence, and once they realize that it is not electrified, they cross it to the load.”
If farmers try to scare away, as Shika did, elephants sometimes turn and defend themselves. The Kenyan Wildlife Service and conservation organizations that track the conflict between humans and elephants estimate that between 30 and 35 people die each year in incidents related to elephants in Kenya.
Communities sometimes take reprisals harping or poisoning elephants, but there are other solutions, as farmers have discovered here.
One of them are bees.
“Elephants do not like bees to pique them, so they stay away from the areas where there are hives,” says Shika.
With the help of Save the Elephants, Shika is one of the 50 farmers who have hung wires hives between posts around their farms. If an elephant touches the wire, the hives shake, disturb the bees. It is an army of small security guards that keeps elephants well away from the farm.
“With the hives acting as close, I can continue cultivating and also make a living with honey,” says Shika. This year, it has won almost $ 250 selling honey.
Changing crops can also make a difference. Elephants love corn and watermelons. But sesame? No.
Sesame plants produce an aroma that actively repels elephants, so for Gertrude Jackim, 70, changing corn and green grams for sesame was obvious. “Look at me, I’m aging, so I can’t defend myself from elephants or scare away,” he says.
She is one of the 100 farmers who have received support to adopt the production of sesame seeds. The change was urgently necessary, he says. “Over the years, the elephants have become too destructive.”
Agricultural practices that dissuade elephants, such as beekeeping and sesame cultivation, have greatly facilitated coexistence for farmers such as Shika and Jackim.
Conservationists expect that, in the long run, this will win hearts and minds in an area where the conflict between humans and elephants had reached worrying levels.
“We have to live in harmony with these elephants,” says Yuka Luvonga by Save the Elephants, “and raise awareness and sensitize communities to change their attitudes towards the animals we have.”
Only then can people and elephants continue to continue thriving here.