Hippos and crocodiles are killing increasing numbers of people in protected areas along Namibia's rivers, in part due to inadequate wildlife management, a senior government official said on Tuesday. "This situation is worrisome and raises many concerns," Environment and Tourism Minister Willem Konjore, told reporters at a briefing.

Konjore spoke after a crocodile killed one person in the village of Nankundwe in the Caprivi region, a narrow piece of Namibia between Botswana, Zambia and Angola, last weekend. That attack brought to six the number of people who have lost their lives to the man-eating reptiles since October, mostly children between four and 15 who had been sunbathing or swimming, officials said.

Hippos killed another two people fishing in the water during the same two-month period, the government official said. The situation is slightly worse than last year when four crocodile attacks were reported over the corresponding months, and no hippo attacks.

Officials attribute the rising number of attacks to human incursions into wildlife protection areas, where many people lack the skills to live with wild animals. Konjore said the government planned to start an education campaign, and would turn to community elders for advice on how such interspecies conflict was managed in the past. "Communities should reap fruitful benefits from conservancies rather than sorrow," Konjore said. "And also, more importantly, we need to learn from the old people how did the older generations manage to co-exist with wild animals."

Many animals roam and stalk their prey along the shores of the Chobe, Zambezi and Kavango rivers, which are popular destinations for tourists on game safaris. But when humans and animals collide, the animals still must pay a price. Conservation groups expressed outrage when government authorities earlier this year shot dead two free-roaming elephants that had rampaged a farming community.

Colgar Sikopo, deputy director in the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, said the four crocodiles involved in the fatal attacks had been shot, as had the hippos. "The body parts of two victims have been retrieved from the bodies of the three shot crocodiles at the request of their families," Sikopo said.
(Por Desiewaar Heita, Planet Ark, 20/12/2006)