The Botswanan government will spend millions of pula to compensate farmers that have lost crops due to wild animals, the Wildlife and Natural Parks Director, Kabelo Senyatso, said.
“Currently we have four projects of fixing and maintaining fences to help control the elephants and keep them away from the communities.
“We have workers currently working on maintaining fences at Makgadikgadi, Tuli backline, Kalahari and Khutse, we do believe farmers along those areas will benefit from this development,” said Senyatso.
Botswana is estimated to be home to more than 130,000 elephants, about a third of Africa’s remaining population.
On average, Botswana spends up to 25 million Pula (2.29 million dollars) annually to compensate farmers for crops damaged by elephants and other wild animals.
In addition, he mentioned that a new anti-poaching camp was set up in Kang recently, as well as a new canine unit to help fight against poaching.
“The canine unit will help supplement anti-poaching in the ground and some of them will be deployed at airports, roads, villages and border crossing to stop the trafficking of illegal products in our country,” said Senyatso. (Xinhua/NAN)