The livid scar zig-zags across Thiyepo’s stomach, then down his left leg to the knee.
It is a gruesome reminder of the day an elephant gored him six years ago, when he was ten, nearly killing him as he helped his uncle herd cattle.
‘The elephant pushed me off my donkey,’ he told me when we met in his Botswanan village. ‘It trampled me, breaking my leg, piercing my pelvis right through. The tusk went sideways through my body and out the other side. I tell all my friends that elephants are dangerous.’
It took a skilled doctor to save his life.
Thiyepo is among hundreds of Botswanans who have been injured – many others have been killed – by elephants, as growing numbers mean they increasingly come into conflict with humans.
At the last count, 153,000 were roaming the country, and every day still more arrive from drought-hit neighbouring countries searching for food and water.
Thiyepo Mariro, 16, is among hundreds of Botswanans who have been injured by elephants, writes SUE REID
Pictured: A hunted elephant is butchered by villagers in Botswana
Botswana has triple the elephant population it had 50 years ago, while neighbouring Zimbabwe, with 70,000, is also being overrun. In some areas, notably Botswana’s lush Okavango Delta where Prince Harry courted Meghan Markle in the early days of their romance, there are more elephants than people – and the country is struggling to cope.
Botswana’s environment minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu told me the West had no inkling of the scale of the crisis. In frustration, he said he wanted to send 10,000 elephants to London’s Hyde Park so Britons might ‘understand what it is like to live with them’. Mr Mthimkhulu travelled here as part of a large African delegation to lobby against a Bill making its way through Parliament.
Botswana president Mokgweetsi Masisi described the Bill as ‘condescending’ and a ‘resurgence of a colonial conquest’, adding that he would be ‘abhorred, disappointed and disturbed’ if it was passed. But yesterday, the Trophy Hunting (Import Prohibition) Bill, backed by the Government, was voted through the House of Commons at a second reading by 49 votes to zero.
The legislation is sponsored by Labour MP John Spellar, who represents a West Midlands constituency not renowned for wild animals. It would ban the import of hunting trophies from species of conservation concern.
But critics say it ignores the concerns and conservation expertise of African countries and lacks scientific credibility.
The Bill will undergo further scrutiny and faces a race against time to clear all the necessary parliamentary stages before the general election. Peers are also expected to frustrate its passage.
‘Wealthy tourists get a kick out of killing beautiful animals, so they can decorate their wall with a so-called trophy,’ Mr Spellar has opined. ‘We want to send a strong message of deterrence to these barbaric hunters: your spoils cannot be brought back here.’
Some readers might be uncomfortable with the idea of UK sportsmen killing these majestic beasts as recreation, and then bringing home such trophies.
But Africans are clamouring for the practice to continue – pointing out not only its benefits to the local economy but also to the vital role it plays in managing populations of dangerous animals that have spiralled out of control.
Herds of marauding elephants, in Botswana and Zimbabwe particularly, regularly invade villages, stealing crops and making people go hungry
This week, leaders of six African countries pointed out the hypocrisy of Britain allowing the export of trophies, such as stags’ heads shot by wealthy foreigners in the Scottish Highlands.
Their pleas fell on deaf ears. A pious grouping of British politicians, celebrities and ‘conservationists’ remains determined to ignore them.
Do British MPs and activists really know better what will benefit Africa than Africans themselves?
Herds of marauding elephants, in Botswana and Zimbabwe particularly, regularly invade villages, stealing crops and making people go hungry. In larger towns, they drink from children’s paddling pools and wander the streets.
On my visit to Botswana, I spoke to local people in the bush, near the village of Gumare. ‘We hate elephants,’ said a young mother of two. ‘We have to remind our children to be afraid of them. They forget they are dangerous and could kill them because there are so many wandering about.’
Africa’s southern nations insist that hunting helps to control numbers, brings tourist cash into deprived communities and helps to fund anti-poaching patrols.
The Africans I spoke to resent the UK’s suggestion that the revenue lost from a trophy ban could be replaced by international aid.
I think they are right to say this is a patronising idea – and may be racist, too. It would promote a beggar-like 19th-century dependency on the West, which would not solve a 21st-century problem.
The elephants of Africa no longer fear humans and have turned into a public menace. Those who shout about the evils of trophy hunting should leave their comfy parliamentary offices and – as I have – see this tragedy unfolding for themselves.