ABOUT 340km south of the capital Harare in Takarindwa village, Gutu district, Masvingo province, a crisis is unfolding. Baboons, once confined to distant mountains and forests, are invading villages in droves, leaving a trail of destruction in their wake. Driven by climate change and environmental degradation, these primates are deserting their shrinking natural habitats and turning to human settlements in a desperate search for food.
The result has been devastating for local communities. From irrigated crops to backyard gardens, nothing is spared. What was once a rare nuisance has become a daily fight for survival, as villagers are forced to compete with wildlife for food.
With forests vanishing and water sources drying up, the balance between humans and nature has been violently disrupted, exposing the impacts of climate and environment change in the country’s rural heartland. “We never used to see them this close. Now they come in troops, bold and unafraid.
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They eat our vegetables and some even break windows,” says Tinaye Chaera, a villager. “As for the baboons, what I gathered is that their habitat has been heavily depleted by humans so naturally they had to find alternative shelter. That’s why they crossed Dewure River in search of food.
“This has been necessitated by indiscriminate chopping down of trees and veld fires which destroyed fruit trees they relied on.” He added: “Some villagers have encroached onto their habitat in such a way that some fields are actually deep on the mountain sides. What would you expect from the baboons?” A 68-year-old woman in the same village is living in pain as baboons time and again devour her green vegetables and trees in the yard, which she survives on by selling fruits.
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