00:00It's the globe marks Wild Elephant Day on August 12th.
00:04The mammal population in Kenya has been booming, but still are increasingly in conflict with humans that live along their migratory routes.
00:12Elephants roam in these mountainous regions of Taita Taveta in Kenya.
00:16As they cross the land, they graze on plants, tripping leaves from trees and bushes along the way.
00:21So some farmers are now using innovative and safe ways to stop the huge animal eating their crops.
00:27Before, we used to plant maize, mung beans, cassava, and pigeon peas.
00:32But now the elephants are increasingly raiding our farms, and some of us can't confront them.
00:39Some are like me. I can't confront them because I'm too old to chase after them.
00:45Therefore, I'm doing sesame farming because the elephants can't eat it because of its scents.
00:52With conservation and anti-poaching efforts gradually allowing elephants to thrive and increase in population,
00:58human-wildlife conflict has soared.
01:01This has been exacerbated by human population growth,
01:04with conservation is now calling for innovative and natural mechanisms for coexistence.
01:08When poaching was eradicated from the world map and considered illegal,
01:14that's when the numbers of elephants started increasing again.
01:17And with that increasing, we found there was a spike in human-elephant conflict
01:21because these elephants, initially maybe they could fear some communities,
01:25but right now they could be roaming anywhere.
01:27So we find one of the major causes of human-elephant conflict is because of human factors.
01:36We find the places or the infrastructure that us as humans, we do develop,
01:41they're the ones which hinder the migratory routes and paths which elephants used to take,
01:45maybe to go for water sources or maybe to look for herbs or some certain kind of trees.
01:50The Savo National Park is a crucial wildlife reserve
01:53and provides sanctuary to some of the largest wild African elephants as well as other animals.
Comments