By Judith Sibanda
A Victoria Falls game scout was yesterday trampled to death by an elephant in circumstances that are still being investigated by law enforcement and wildlife authorities.
According to Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) spokesperson Tinashe Farawo, the man whose identity, he said, could not be immediately released to the public was in his early 30s.
“We can confirm that there was a very sad and unfortunate incident which happened yesterday afternoon at Gusu Woodlands forest,” Farawo said.
“The terrible incident involved a private game scout from Victoria Falls and an elephant but the circumstances surrounding how it happened are still under investigations because so far, nothing concrete has been given to us.”
Farawo, however, said the elephant was also put down following its strange behaviour towards the rangers.
“They reported that as they were tracking it down, it immediately started charging heavily on our investigators, prompting them to gun it down but it should be clear that investigations surrounding this incident are still ongoing.”
The man’s remains, according to Farawo, were taken to Victoria Falls mortuary.
In 2018, a trained elephant trampled a tour guide in the same resort city.
In the same year, another local man was also killed in a separate incident after he had tried to drive elephants into the open to take pictures.
Last year, another Victoria Falls resident was trampled near National Railway of Zimbabwe (NRZ) houses.
Zimbabwe has the second-largest elephant population in the world at 82 304 according to the Great Elephant Census of 2016.
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