Three elephants put down after escaping KZN reserve
Three elephants have been put down at the Hluhluwe iMfolozi Park in KZN after they strayed into a nearby community.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife says five of the animals were spotted roaming on community land outside the park yesterday.
Spokesperson, Musa Mntambo, says they manage to detain two, but had to kill the other three after they escaped from the reserve.
He says the decision to put them down was taken after officials realised driving them back to the game reserve would pose a threat to locals.
"By the time when we went back to try and push back the other three that had escaped they were plus-minus seven km into the community area. We then applied for the destruction permit and three elephants were destroyed."
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He says after their destruction they removed the parts that they normally take out when elephants are killed and left the remains for the community to cut the meat if they wanted to.
