Natural reservations were created in national parks across Africa with the express purpose of caring for the wildlife, as well as for endangered species, such as several types of elephants. This usually implies the area is protected and that human activities are reduced to a minimum. This is not the case with the Chobe National Park in Botswana, where three elephants died this year alone, after consuming plastics from a garbage dump, located within their reservation.
 

Apart from elephants, hyenas, baboons and a large number of birds also gather at the site to look for easy food. But the wastes are not organic, and dangerous chemicals, coming from electronics equipment, as well as plastics, coming from bags, bottles and the likes, are present in important quantities. Park officials said they've found plastic products inside the bellies of all three dead elephants, which means that they died of intoxication.
 

Wildlife park warden Thunya Sedodoma says that, in 2008, some 70 animal deaths recorded throughout the park were linked to the presence of oil-related products in the bowls of animals. The official blames the managers of the landfill directly, for failing to surround the area with an electrified fence and for not purchasing garbage compactors, so they can bury the trash.
 

Setting aside the environmental impact of an opened garbage dump in a natural reservation, this situation is a bleak reminder of the fact that all plastic wastes people throw away end up somewhere. The garbage doesn't simply go away, once the garbage truck beeps outside. It moves places, takes resources to dispose of and causes terrible damage to the wildlife, if disposed of improperly.
 

The reality in Botswana will remain the same for at least a few more months, landfill managers say. Until proper compactors arrive, they are left with no choice but to continue dumping in that landfill. Another one is being built close to it, and they say that the new one will have an electrified fence as well, to keep the animals away.