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ESSENTIAL DESTINATIONS

MONTH: July-August 2007

Global warming: Animals at risk from drought in Zimbabwe, flooding in India and Bangladesh

 

HARARE, GUWAHATI, DHAKA-- "Climatic change" does not really describe the impact of global warming on Zimbabwe, northern and eastern India, and Bangladesh.

Zimbabwe has always consisted largely of dry forest and high desert, plagued by frequent drought. Heavy monsoons have often battered northern and eastern India. The floods of the past three summers just accentuated the trend.

Bangadesh, 90% of which lies 10 meters below sea level, was inundated in 1988 and 1998, as well as 2007.

The disasters of 2007 afflicting much of Zimbabe, India, and Bangladesh are the result not of climatic change but of climatic norms intensified by global warming to extremes beyond the capacity of people and animals to adequately prepare.

In Zimbabwe the crisis is amplified by inflation running at an estimated 10,000%, crime, civil unrest, and the collapse of the government into "kleptocracy," as the New York Times described it, in which insiders in the Robert Mugabe regime seize whatever they can, while they can.

"There is again a critical shortage of fuel to pump water for the animals in Hwange National Park, which is not surprising in view of the extreme shortage of basic commodities in Zimbabwe," e-mailed Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force chair Johnny Rodrigues on July 24, 2007. "The park needs 20,000 litres of diesel to ensure that there is enough water for the animals during the dry season, from August to November."

 


The 2007 drought has accelerated the decline of Zimbabwean wildlife since 2000, when the Mugabe government encouraged landless supporters to invade farms and conservancies owned or managed by residents of European ethnicity.

Rodrigues estimates that of 620 Zimbabwean game farms existing in 2000, only 14 are still operating, with a net loss of 91% of the wildlife they accommodated. Of 15 conservancies existing in 2000, only the Save Valley Conservancy remains, for a net loss of 83% of conservancy wildlife.

"We have not been able to obtain figures on animals lost in National Parks," Rodrigues said, "but if we conservatively estimate that only 10% have been lost, this brings the loss over the whole country to 59%. Since the collapse of the economy, the National Parks have not been able to carry out anti poaching patrols effectively," so estimating a 10% loss is probably low.

"Although wildlife is still fairly abundant in Hwange National Park and at Mana Pools," Rodrigues added, "we receive regular reports from tourists that they are very lucky to spot any game in Gonarezhou and Chisarira. Likewise, the Umfurudzi Wilderness had wildlife in abundance prior to the land invasions, but it has almost been totally eradicated now by poachers."

Speaking to the government-controlled Harare Herald, Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokes-person Edward Mbewe on July 26, 2007 confirmed that game meat was being illegally sold in Matabeleland, Mashonaland West and Mashonaland Central."

The South African National SPCA on July 22, 2007 appealed for help on behalf of the Zimbabwe National SPCA. "The call follows reports that food shortages forced the Zimbabwe National SPCA to euthanize more than 600 stray animals housed in its kennels," wrote Thabo Mabaso of the Cape Town Cape Argus.

Cape of Good Hope SPCA chief executive Allan Perrins "told the Cape Argus that public response had been overwhelming," Mabaso recounted, but that left the problem of getting supplies from Cape Town to the points of need, amid reports of desperate Zimbabweans-- including police--hijacking truckloads of anything edible and "requisitioning" fuel from any vehicle they could stop.

"A statement by the SPCA said the mass exodus of Zimbabweans to neighbouring countries had left many animals dying of hunger," said Mabaso. "The situation is not conducive to rehoming"

Said the SPCA, "Food for captive wildlife and animals on farms is a central issue. We fear that these animals may themselves become targets for food."

The drought hit South Africa as well. South African National SPCA executive director Marcel Meredith deployed eight emergency teams to wildfire zones in Mpumalanga, Swaziland, and KwaZulu-Natal during the last weekend of July 2007.

Initially the NSPCA teams euthanized sheep, cattle, and wildlife who were caught by the flames. More than 2,000 sheep and 300 cattle were reported killed. The fires also killed as many as 20 people, and left more than 1,000 people homeless.

Bergville veterinarian Ariena Shepherd told Stephanie Saville of the KwaZulu-Natal Mercury that farm workers ran through flames at one point to cut a fence to save a herd of cattle.

That left the problem of how to feed the survivors. "We've never seen anything like this. There is no grazing or hay left for the remaining livestock," Paulpietersburg Farmers' Association chair Arno Engelbrecht told Saville.

High water

Farmers in parts of India and almost all of Bangladesh had much the same problem, but for the opposite reason, with much of their grazing land underwater.

Two weeks of heavy rain starting on June 30, 2007 initially brought extensive flooding in Orissa and northern Andhra Pradesh, India, killing close to 30 people, temporarily marooning 600,000, and displacing as many as 1.5 million. The damage increased as seven major tributaries poured water into the Mahanadi River.

The World Society for the Protection of Animals began disaster relief assessment in the vicinity after receiving a July 9 appeal for help from J.B. Das of People for Animals.

"It was deemed that while large numbers of people were displaced and affected that the situation in this region was a cyclical event caused by changes in monsoonal patterns," e-mailed WSPA director general Peter Davies to ANIMAL PEOPLE. "It is deemed more appropriate to avoid annual relief’ expenditure, and try to undertake a disaster risk reduction program as a model. WSPA is currently investigating the details and cost of such a program," collaborating with the Visakha SPCA, of Visakhapatnam, which has had extensive experience in recent years with disaster relief and recovery.

"Central to this plan," Davies said, "will be constructing cyclone shelters for animals next to cyclone shelters for people."

The crisis moved northeast during the next two weeks. More than 5,300 villages in Assam were flooded by August 4, forcing about 117,000 people and many of their animals into 523 refuge camps, reported Sushanta Talukdar of The Hindu.

About 80% of oft-flooded Kaziranga National Park in Assam was inundated, as it often has been in recent years. The Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary was underwater from July 23 into mid-August.

Kaziranga division forest officer Bankim Sarma told Talukdar that a variety of wildlife including an endangered one-horned rhino had drowned, and seven hog deer were hit by speeding vehicles while trying to cross a busy highway to safety, but 885 hog deer, 112 elephants, and 50 wild buffalo were known to have survived the crossing.

But Bangladesh took the worst hit. Reaching Dhaka on August 12, WSPA disaster relief coordinator Philip Russell called the flooding "the worst in living memory in Bangladesh. Two million people are believed to be displaced," Russell e-mailed to WSPA headquarters in London, "many with animals, mostly into temporary camps run by both the government and nonprofit organizations. Many of the displaced are small holders with up to 10 milking cows and a few sheep and/or goats," who "rely on their animals for their sustenance and livelihood."

The only WSPA member society in Bangladesh is the Bangladesh Animal Welfare Organisation, of Dhaka, an animal advocacy organization with little hands-on capacity, which has partnered in projects with the Bangladesh Human Development Program.

Russell was investigating whether WSPA could usefully intervene as ANIMAL PEOPLE went to press. --Merritt Clifton