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The Star `17th Sept 2012;POACHERS killed three elephants at Taita Ranch on Sunday in the latest incident of escalating poaching in the region. The three male elephants aged between 30 and 40 old were shot dead by the poachers who are said to have been armed with sophisticated guns. In July, poachers killed three elephants at the ranch which is adjacent to the Tsavo conservation area.

The Sunday killings bring to 13 the number of elephants slaughtered within the Tsavo conservation area this year. Witnesses said the poachers had plucked the tusks from one of the elephant, but dropped them some few metres from the scene on realising that the KWS rangers were pursuing them.

"Some herders who were near the scene heard gunshots and informed KWS rangers who rushed to the scene. On hearing a vehicle approaching the scene, the poachers fled," said a source. KWS assistant director in charge of the Tsavo conservation area Wilson Korir said herders in the ranch are suspected to behind increased poaching.

“Immediately after the incident, we deployed our canine unit at the scene and on following the footsteps they led us to the herders,” he said. He said the presence of livestock in the ranches adjacent to the Tsavo National Park was complicating the anti-poaching fight. “It’s very difficult to separate herders and poachers at the ranches. Most of these herders deployed to graze in these regions are outsiders and dishonest,” he said.

Korir urged the livestock keepers to hire locals because "they are not armed and do not engage in elephant poaching". “We want cooperation from livestock keepers because we want them to engage local community in the herding jobs. Locals are not armed and do not engage in poaching unlike the herders from other regions,” he said.

Korir said KWS security personnel are pursuing the suspected poachers and will "soon arrest them".

“We are optimistic that the culprits behind the poaching of elephants in the ranches will be arrested soon. We are liaising with the local communities to give us intelligence information to nab the suspects,” he said. The wildlife conservation body has been lamenting over herders who encroach on the park to graze at night. Korir said KWS spends Sh15 million mo