TAITA TAVETA, Kenya (AP) — For farmers in the Taita hills in southern Kenya, elephants are a menace: they raid crops and will occasionally injure or even kill people.

Farmer Richard Shika, 68, has had some close encounters. “One time, I was trying to chase away an elephant that was in my maize field, but it turned and charged me,” Shika remembers. “It stopped when it was right in front of me, and I managed to jump out of the way.”

He feels lucky to be alive. Almost exactly two years ago, local media reported that a 3-year-old girl had been trampled to death by an elephant in Taita Taveta county, her mother injured.

The area where Shika has his farm is almost surrounded by Kenya’s biggest National Park. The border of Tsavo East National Park is less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) to the ea

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