We were doing some construction work to fix one of the damaged greenhouses when all of a sudden we heard a couple of elephants trumpeting nervously from the woods, only a couple of hundred meters away from the farm. Then we heard some people shout and scream, trying to chase away the grey giants. We could see that some neighbouring kids moved towards the river, trying to catch a glimpse. Charles and Alfred also starred at the woods trying to locate them. Charles just lives near the place where the elephants would cross the river to find some food in the farmer’s fields. They seem to be attracted to papaya (which they call popo here), banana trees, maize or casava (some root that tastes a bit like potato when fried or boiled). He told me that these elephants seemed pretty angry as they might be very hungry and were most likely disturbed by some people. He was sure they would come to get his casava from his fields at nightfall.
Whilst we Europeans may see the elephants as cute giants that need to be protected they are nothing but a threat for the farmers over here. They don’t like them at all and would love them to go extinct. Not only would they eat some of their harvest but also they would destroy harvest just by stepping on it or when they’re breaking trees (just like when one of them visited our Eco Farm lately). I then discussed a little with Charles, trying to explain that these animals were here before us and that we took their land so they lack feed especially when during dry season and I also promised to doing some research on the Internet to find a solution for their elephant problem.
Then Alfred and Charles excitedly shouted out that they were there, up in the trees. I scrutinized the woods beyond the river but couldn’t locate them. I must admit that I’m short-sighted so I might have been a bit too optimistic trying. Then I decided to get my camera for I had just bought a lens for it to be able to take some pictures of distant animals. Then I tried again to see them and there they were. After taking a few pictures (I didn’t take too many as they were too far away and mostly hidden behind bushes and trees we finished our work.
After dinner I went down to the river with a torch, as it was already dark, to see if the elephants were down there. But I couldn’t see any of them there so I went back to my hut. Later when I was already laying in bed reading I could hear noises from neighbours who were eagerly drumming on pans and pots. No, they weren’t having a party at all. They tried to chase way the elephants that were sneaking around again to prevent them from eating their harvest or destroying their fields. They would do that till midnight before they could go back home to sleep. Poor farmers.
Fancy a quiz? Ok, where’s the elephant???
here you can see one bulls eye and a tusk, just in the middle of the picture..
here’s the picture zoomed-in, they were hiding themselves in the woods
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