Kenyan authorities have arrested four people, including three Kenyans and one Tanzanian, in connection with the suspected poisoning of at least 18 elephants in Amboseli National Park over the past two months. The Kenya Wildlife Service believes the animals, mostly female adults and calves, died after eating tomatoes contaminated with illegal pesticides containing cyanide, a case that highlights the dangers posed by unregulated agrochemicals to wildlife in areas where farmland borders elephant migration routes.

Preliminary lab tests found cyanide traces in crop samples taken from the dead elephants' stomachs, and all the animals showed signs of paralysis consistent with such poisoning. The suspected source is tomato farms in the Kimana area, part of a wildlife corridor linking Amboseli and Tsavo National Parks, through which more than 2,000 elephants roam in search of food and water near the Tanzanian border. Banned pesticides are reportedly smuggled across this porous frontier and used on local farms, which elephants often raid, while weak enforcement of existing regulations has allowed the practice to persist. The four suspects have been released on bail as the investigation continues.