By Rex Mphisa
BEITBRIDGE residents have been warned to be on high alert of lions from Gonarezhou that are moving west into the district.
One of the big cats, the female with cubs, is reportedly closer to Beitbridge town.
Beitbridge Rural District Council chairman Oscar Chiromo told Ziyah News Network on Friday that of particular concern was that female with cubs.
“The department of National Parks and Wildlife has informed us they were monitoring these lions on satelite. We have been advised to put villagers on high alert,” he said.
Chiromo said villagers and residents of Beitbridge East have to be on the lookout and should protect both human and domestic animal life from the predators.
“We have been alerted by officials that have been monitoring but we are saying everyone must be cautious,” he said.
Chiromo in a broadcast together with Beitbridge Rural District Council Chief Executive Kilibone Mbedzi askes parents to escort children to school.
People should be more cautious in the morning and at night which are known hunting timetables of lions, their joint communique said.
Beitbridge is in the Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE), a Zimbabwean community-based natural resource management program.
It is one of the first programs to consider wildlife as renewable natural resources, while addressing the allocation of its ownership to indigenous peoples in and around conservation protected areas.
Campfire was initiated in 1989 by the Zimbabwean government as a program to support community-led development and sustainable use of natural resources.
The 1975 Parks and Wildlife Act set the legal bar by allowing communities and private landowners to use wildlife on their land, marking a substantial shift from colonial policy that made it illegal for local populations to utilize wildlife in any way.
Under the programme villagers co-exist with wildlife and benefit from hunting quotas of wildlife in their area.
The move has also reduced poaching and extinction of wildlife species.