Poachers and drought take deadly toll on elephants - www.coastweek.com

interception of 61 whole tusks of raw ivory weighing about 532 kg at a Kenya Airways warehouse at 1500GMT

SPECIAL REPORT BY XINHUA CORRESPONDENT BY DANIEL OOKO

NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said Wednesday it seized the largest haul of ivory in recent history at the country’s main airport.

The Tuesday evening’s interception of 61 whole tusks of raw ivory weighing about 532 kg at a Kenya Airways warehouse at 1500GMT followed joint efforts by the KWS Dog Unit, Kenyan, Ethiopian Airlines and Airport Police as well as the Nairobi-based regional wildlife organization Lusaka Agreement Task Force.

"The unaccompanied luggage was to be air-freighted to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on the way to Bangkok, Thailand," KWS said in a statement.

The ivory had been falsely declared as "Polishing Bench" in the Air Bill and was packed in four boxes.

Apparently, the trophies appear to have been obtained illegally locally and according to documents received from Ethiopian Airlines, Addis Ababa, another consignment of 637 kg of ivory was intercepted by Ethiopian authorities two days earlier on Sunday at Addis Ababa.

"This consignment had also originated from JKIA destined to Bangkok via Addis Ababa by the same consignee.

"This consignment had been declared as "Dye Polishing Bench"

This makes a total of 1,169 kg of ivory seized within two days in Addis Ababa and Nairobi, all suspected to be from Kenyan elephants.

Since Kenya and Ethiopia are signatories to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), they collaborated in enforcing the provisions which provide for seizure and confiscation of illegally traded CITES listed wildlife and its products.

In the past, illegally obtained trophies from Kenya usually transited out of the country through porous borders and Moyale in northern Kenya has all along been suspected to be a point of exit.

From Ethiopia, the trophies would find their way to the lucrative black markets in South East Asia.

Kenyan laws allow confiscation and seizure of illegal goods while on transit.

Kenya Wildlife Service has intensified surveillance at all the international airports in the country using sniffer and tracker dogs to enforce these provisions.

"24-hour surveillance has been mounted at JKIA and will be extended to Mombasa and Eldoret, the other international points of exit from Kenya.

"We will ensure that it’s almost impossible to leave Kenya with any ivory and other trophies," KWS said.

The KWS said the recovered ivory is suspected to have been sourced locally and from the neighboring countries.

Kenya has this year lost 125 elephants through poaching but most of the poached ivory has been recovered by KWS through security operations.

Kenya lost 47 elephants to illegal killings in 2007 and 98 last year.

In absolute terms this is not alarming.

However, the percentage increase in illegal killings within the last three years is worrying.

The current prolonged drought has also taken its toll on the elephant population but has mainly affected the young and sub-adult elephants.

Investigations have been launched to ascertain the origin of the ivory and the culprits behind this illegal trade in wildlife trophies.

Meanwhile Kenya’s wildlife authorities have confirmed that more than 100 elephants have died due to a severe drought in the sprawling Tsavo National Park.

Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) Tsavo Conservation Assistant Director Jonathan Kirui told the Standard newspaper that the elephants died of hunger and poacher attacks between July and this month.

"We have so far lost 109 elephants in the past three months and the number is increasing every day due to drought and poaching activities," said Kirui.

The east African nation has more than 20,000 elephants.

"Drought related elephants and hippos deaths have been on the increase in the park as water and pasture continue to decline," said Kirui.

Conservationists say elephants roam widely to get their daily ration of as much as 200 liters of water and about 300 kg of grass, leaves and twigs.

But the water is disappearing and the grass is all but gone.

"The animals’ body condition is also worsening especially for elephants, buffalos and hippos due to lack of pasture and water," Kirui said.

Kirui warned that if it did not rain soon wildlife would be wiped out affecting tourism in the world-famous park.

Kirui said KWS has started giving hippos hay to save them from death.

Earlier in the week, KWS personnel arrested four suspected poachers and impounded several ivory as a crackdown on poaching activities intensified in the park.

Kirui said two of the suspects were arrested at Chakama in the Tsavo East with 63 kg of ivory while the other suspects at Kishushe with eight kg of the trophies.

The Director said the prolonged drought has encouraged poaching and warned that anyone found would be dealt with according the law.

More than 40 elephants have died in the past two months in Laikipia, Isiolo and Samburu districts.

It was initially thought to be a disease outbreak but laboratory tests failed to detect disease.

The only probable reason the animals are dying is drought, Moses Litoloh, a senior scientist with the KWS said early this month.

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Mainly poached and illegal ivory always heading for the far east....