Concerns have been raised in Kenya after news that the recent deaths of 15 elephants may have been caused by pesticides sprayed on tomato crops around Amboseli National Park. The elephants died between 24 June and 24 July, and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said some showed signs of "partial paralysis" that pointed to poisoning from cyanide used in pesticides.
Conservationists have told the BBC that this may not be the full story, and farmers in the area have also expressed scepticism.
"We have stayed with this wildlife for decades and have never experienced this," Daniel Nina, who represents some of the landowners in the area, told the BBC.
"So that's why we are wondering why it is happening today."
The tomato farms are in the Kimana area, which forms part of a corridor between Amboseli National Park and Tsavo National Park in the south of Kenya. The area is part of the Amboseli ecosystem, which straddles the border near Tanzania and is used by more than 2,000 elephants moving in search of food and water. These farms benefit from streams from nearby Mount Kilimanjaro and supply markets in Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and beyond.
The 15 elephants were found dead outside the Amboseli National Park between June and July.
The chief vet of Kenya's Wildlife Service, Dr Isaac Lekolool, said samples taken from the elephants' stomachs contained traces of cyanide. He said the service is not ruling out deliberate poisoning, but that it is impossible at this stage to say what killed the elephants.
"It's difficult to tell because we've not seen these kind of cases before. It is almost like a one-off, and it was within a period of about a month," Lekolool said.
Their working theory is that the elephants were exposed to the toxin through pesticides sprayed on nearby tomato farms.
"It could be unintentional. Maybe people are trying to do some controls of pests on their crops, and that could have been maybe a source."
What is known about the pesticide risk?
A 2024 report by Kenyan food safety initiative Route to Food found a farmer in the Kimana area using an insecticide with an "active ingredient" that was "a chemical compound of cyanide". Wangunyu Njuguna, the author of the report, said that although some toxic agrochemicals are illegal in Kenya, they are still smuggled across the border with Tanzania.
"The biggest problem is we're not enforcing similar standards in the region," Njuguna said. "There is no-one checking what I go and buy across the border, so I can just go buy anything and walk through the border and no-one stops me."
Highly hazardous substances are common on Kenyan farms and have been linked to serious diseases. While regulations against illegal agrochemicals exist, enforcement is weak and there is little attention to how these products can affect animals.
Officials suggest that pesticides sprayed on tomatoes in nearby farms could have poisoned the elephants.
Why are some conservationists unconvinced?
Several wildlife conservationists have questioned the initial findings of Kenya's Wildlife Service. Paula Kahumbu, a conservationist who has worked with elephants for nearly 30 years, said there was not enough detailed information to support the claim that pesticides in crops caused the deaths.
"We haven't got enough detailed information to have confidence in this claim that it's due to pesticides in crops," Kahumbu said.
"Some information has been released to the public but it's not adding up. Those elephants have to eat a huge amount to kill them."
Other unnamed experts said the pesticide theory did not fit elephant behaviour. They said male elephants are more likely to raid farms because they tend to take more risks than females and calves. However, only one of the 15 dead elephants was an adult male.
Nina, the landowners' representative, said earlier poisoning cases in farms had affected zebras and antelopes, which raid the same areas.
"How does cyanide kill the elephants and leave behind the zebras, antelopes and wildebeests, which are eating the grass together?" Nina asked.
How common is human-wildlife conflict in the area?
Human-wildlife conflict has persisted for decades in communities near conservation areas across Kenya. Stephen Michael, a tomato farmer in Kimana, said elephants and giraffes occasionally raid farms in the area.
"Elephants come from time to time from Tsavo and Amboseli. They destroy many farms, not just mine," Michael said.
"The last time elephants came, they destroyed cabbages and tomatoes. I lost cabbages worth almost $1,535. That doesn't include tomatoes. I might start crying if I count that."
Frank Pope, chief executive of conservation organisation Save the Elephants, told the BBC that the pressure on Amboseli's elephants is no longer about ivory. He said farms and lodges are increasingly taking up land around the park that was previously used by elephants, worsening conflict with wildlife.
"People are moving into areas where there's enough water to grow crops, and fertile soils, and those are the very areas that the elephants tend to use as well."
No-one knows for sure what is causing the elephant deaths. The concern is that the remaining elephants, and the people who live near them, could still be at risk.
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