An elephantine problem

August 12, 2025 by Hardball

Today, August 12, is World Elephant Day. Established in 2012, this annual international event raises awareness about the situation of African and Asian elephants, which are listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). The day also aims to share information on their care and management.

 Coincidentally, a farmer was tragically killed by an elephant attack in a village in Ogun State about two weeks ago. The incident raised questions about the management of elephants at a government reserve in the state.

According to Ogun State Commissioner of Police Lanre Ogunlowo, the police received a report from the Itasin community on July 28. It said that elephants had escaped from a government reserve and attacked a farmer, Musa Kalamu, who later died on the way to the hospital. He added that officers of the Ogun State Forestry were contacted to prevent the animals from causing further damage. The victim was said to have been working on his farm in the Itasin-Imobi area; the government reserve is in Ijebu East local government area.

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A voice in a viral video showing Kalamu’s body said: “This is Kala, he was attacked by the elephants at Onitasin… the marks of the attack are all over his body, even his intestines are out.”  Another villager said: “This elephant keeps coming into our community to destroy our crops, damage our fishing nets, and now, it has taken a life.” The villagers called for urgent government intervention, stressing that invasive elephants have posed danger to lives and farmlands in their community for years.

Before now, there had been reports of elephants causing havoc in some Lagos and Ogun communities after leaving their reserve. The question is: How were the elephants able to move out of the reserve?  If the elephants had a reason to leave the reserve, that shouldn’t mean they must have a way to leave. The elephants were able to leave the reserve because they could – this indicates a failure in its management.  If the reserve were properly managed, the elephants would have been unable to leave.

Wildlife conservation is a serious issue. The Wildlife Conservation Society has outlined and advocated several key actions. These include increasing aerial surveillance in strongholds, training and deploying more rangers, supplying new rangers with equipment, assisting authorities in shutting down trafficking networks, and growing community development programmes to help communities co-exist with wildlife. The authorities should take action.