The stench of rotting elephant carcasses hangs in the air in western Zimbabwe where wildlife officials say at least 91 elephants were poisoned with cyanide by poachers who hack off the tusks for the lucrative illegal ivory market.
Massive bones, some already bleached by the blistering sun in the Hwange National Park, litter the landscape around one remote watering hole where 18 carcasses were found. Officials say cyanide used in gold mining was spread by poachers over the flat "salt pans," also known as natural, mineral rich salt licks, around water holes. They say lions, hyenas and vultures have died from feeding on contaminated carcasses or drinking nearby.
"The magnitude of what we are witnessing today is much higher that what has occurred previously," environment minister Saviour Kasukuwere told reporters on a trip to the park yesterday.
Cyanide attacks the bloodstream, kills almost instantly and causes rapid decomposition. Most of the poisoned elephants died in the past month. The chemical is commonly used by illegal gold panners to separate the metal from surrounding ore and is easily available.
Nine suspected poachers have been arrested this month after the biggest, most brutal poaching spree on record. Three men were sentenced to up to 16 years in jail. The Hwange park, stretching over 14,000 square kilometers has one of the highest concentrations of elephants in Africa.
Kasukuwere, newly appointed to the environment ministry after disputed elections won by longtime President Robert Mugabe in July, said Zimbabwe will intensify efforts to campaign among world nations, including Asia where there is the highest demand for ivory, to curb the illegal trade.
Tusks of the poisoned elephants are thought to have been smuggled into neighboring South Africa through illicit syndicates that pay desperately poor poachers a fraction of the USD 1,500 a kilogram that ivory can fetch despite a world ban on sales by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES.
"We will cooperate with international organizations such as Interpol to crack down on the pay masters. So the war is on, it's a war which we will win, we are not going to surrender," Kasukuwere said.
