Kenya rangers hunt poachers

2002-04-04 15:06

Nairobi - Park rangers have been pursuing a gang of poachers who killed a family of 10 elephants for their tusks in Kenya's Tsavo East National Park, a Kenya Wildlife Service official said on Thursday.

Paula Kahumbu of KWS said the poachers killed the family of six adult female and four adult male elephants on March 28 and rangers started tracking them the following day after finding the poachers' footprints.

The Kenya Wildlife Service has deployed 50 rangers, two light aircraft and a helicopter to track down the poachers.

Rangers also found the elephants' carcasses covered with bushes and tusks of nine elephants buried in the ground in the wildlife preserve, 250km southeast of Nairobi.

Poachers often bury the tusks until they have as much as they want, then take them to a buyer.

A study released on March 22 by the non-governmental organisation Save The Elephants, found that African ivory is often smuggled to South and Southeast Asian countries, where its average price is $250/kg compared to $50/kg in Africa.

In the late 1970s and early '80s poachers hungry for ivory killed elephants, reducing the population from about 140 000 in 1972 to 27 000 today. An internationally-funded anti-poaching campaign has drastically reduced elephant poaching in Kenya and last week's incident is one of the largest recorded in recent years.

Between March 29 and April 1 the poachers and the rangers had two shootouts, during which one poacher was killed and the remaining three poachers abandoned an AK-47, a G-3 rifle and a rocket-propelled grenade launcher with eastern European markings, and their food supplies.

"Two of them are brothers and are well-known Somali poachers who used to operate in Tsavo East in the '80s," Kahumbu said.

The poacher who was killed had a notebook with notes written in Somali, including accounting for their provisions and a prayer, she said.

In November game wardens found the carcasses of three adult rhinos and one 13-month-old rhino calf in Tsavo East National Park, possibly killed by poachers. - Sapa-AP

- SAPA