Human victims of encounters with elephants
People are not just scared of elephants - they are terrified
TransMara: in the last two years (2001-2003) nine people were attacked by elephants. Of those, four were killed. One was just a school girl. An elephant's first instinct is to swat
After years of persecution and hunting, an elephant's first instinctive reaction should you cross their path is to swat you away... and then trample you - much as we would a fly or mosquito that was trying bite us.
There are some who escaped. They managed this usually because when the elephant swatted them, they were either thrown out of the way, or the elephant was distracted by the smell or noise of something else. Noah tells of how one young girl escaped because her scarf came off when she was thrown, and while the elephant moved to stamp on the scarf, which had her smell, the girl escaped.
Too late to benefit
Paring'o Tumbes Kalasinga (pictured to the right below) is another victim whose accident happened before Noah asked the village chiefs to close down bars near the human-elephant conflict "front line". On his way home one evening after having a few drinks, he was attacked.
Paring'o says "After the attack, my neighbours gave me some cows,but I cannot bend down to milk them. And I cannot go and see my family when I want, because I cannot walk very far." Paring'o is also still waiting for compensation from the Kenyan government, despite his encounter occurring several years ago.
