Rangers 'kill jumbos over pay'

29 October 2015 - 02:18 By ©The Daily Telegraph

Elephants are being poisoned in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park by disgruntled rangers, conservation sources say. At least 62 elephants have died from cyanide hidden in salt licks and oranges in Zimbabwe in the past month alone.In the latest episode, in the Sinamatella area in the northwest of the park, rangers discovered the corpses of 22 elephants this week.Only four tusks had been taken, suggesting that the poachers were either disturbed or there was another reason for the elephants being poisoned.When 26 elephants were killed earlier in the month, only seven tusks were taken.Wildlife officials believe that some of the poisoning was done by rangers who risk their lives regularly to combat often heavily armed poachers but are paid badly and erratically by the national body for wildlife.Zimbabwe's National Parks and Wildlife Authority receives no funding from the government and survives almost entirely on income from tourists and hunters.That income has been in steep decline since the US banned the importation of elephant trophies from hunts in Zimbabwe last year, citing concerns about sustainability.Many Zimparks employees have only recently received the wages that were due to them in September, and Zimparks this week failed to pay for diesel to run the pumps that supply drought-hit Hwange with water for its wildlife.One of two rangers recently arrested on suspicion of poisoning elephants earns only $450 a month.About 100000 elephants were killed in Africa between 2011 and 2013. ..

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