Elephants attack villages, destroy gardens in Kasese

A herd of elephants has destroyed gardens of maize, banana plantations and sunflowers in Kasese District.
The elephants, which are believed to have escaped from the Queen Elizabeth National Park on Tuesday and Thursday, raided villages of Rwehingo, Bugemu and Katholhu in Nyakiyumbu Sub-county.

Residents from the affected areas say they approached Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) for intervention.
Mr Peter Sunday Kakule, the Nyakiyumbu Sub-county chairperson, confirmed the invasion of the elephants and blamed UWA for giving them a deaf ear after the animals wreaked havoc.

“It is a huge loss and my area may be struck by severe famine,” Mr Kakule said.
He said farmers whose maize fields were not affected have been directed to harvest the crops to avoid any anticipated damages.
Cotton and maize farmers on Kasese-Bwera highway are now prompted to camp at fire places to scare away the elephants.

Mr Augustine Muserero, a farmer in Katholhu Village, whose garden is a few metres to Bwera Town, told Daily Monitor that his two acres of banana plantation were destroyed on Christmas Day.
Mr Muserero said the elephants returned on Thursday and destroyed all his bananas.
“For the past six months, we have been harvesting and earning Shs250,000 per week. We cannot harvest anything as of now,” he said.

Mr Matiya Kapota, a resident, said his five acres of cotton were destroyed as the elephants looked for maize.
“I am waiting for the festive season to end so that I cut down all the maize prematurely if I am to harvest some kilogrammes of cotton,” he said.
The UWA spokesperson, Mr Bashir Hangi, said over the years, farmers neighbouring Queen Elizabeth National Park have had issues of elephants escaping from the park to eat their crops.

“When such incidents occur, we go there and relate with the affected communities because it is important for communities to co-exist with the park,” he said.
Asked if the affected communities will get compensated, Mr Hangi said at the moment they would not.
He, however, said the new law has provisions of compensating people who lose properties as a result of attacks from wild animals.

In order to prevent continuous attacks from wild animals, UWA has started constructing an electric fence around Queen Elizabeth National Park.
“We have so far constructed 10 kilometres and we shall continue constructing fences in hot spots,” Mr Hangi told Daily Monitor yesterday.

In September, 16 elephants invaded farms, destroyed crops in areas of Kirembe Cell and Kisinga Sub -county in Kasese Municipality.

UWA’s mandate
UWA is mandated under the law to manage and conserve wildlife in Uganda, both in and outside the wildlife protected areas including national parks, wildlife reserves and wildlife sanctuaries.

By Joel Kaguta, Francis Mugerwa& Enid Ninsiima
Worldwide, there is a growing conflict between man and wild animals. It is required to ensure timely and appropriate response to reported problem animals.
, in collaboration with the concerned communities and the respective local authorities.

Worldwide there is a growing conflict between man and wild animals. It is not a local phenomenon; but an issue that spans a diverse array of geographic and human demographic contexts. Although humans and carnivores have co-existed for a long time but the frequency of conflicts have increased in recent decades as a result of increased human activities in wildlife areas and forests.

According to the World Conservation Union (World Park Congress 2003), conflict occurs when wildlife’s requirements overlap with those of human populations, creating costs to residents and wild animals. If man destroys or disturbs animal’s habitat, it is quite obvious that there will be struggle for the survival from the part of the animals.

The destruction of their habitat due to human activities compels the wild animals to enter human settlements in search of food and water leading to conflict.

In the case of Uganda, man has settled in some parts of national parks. For example, Muhokya and Katunguru trading centres and Katwe-Kabatooro town council are inside Queen Elizabeth National park not forgetting the people who have been increasingly settling on the periphery of the parks like at Kyambura and Kasese town and Bigodi and Isunga in Kamwenge.and Kabarole districts.

UWA and some organisations like Malaika honey have over years made some mitigations like digging trenches and erected bee hive fences in some strategic places at the periphery of the parks and along crop gardens in a bid to stop wild animals from crossing into the gardens and this has temporarily stopped some animals but others continue destroying the gardens or attacking people in their homes.

Meanwhile security officials working at Uganda –DR Congo border at Mpondwe in Kasese district have tipped Uganda Wildlife Authority [UWA] to invest in intelligence gathering along the border line in order to register successes in fighting against illegal trade in wild animals.

“You must invest in intelligence in order to get results. Intelligence must be financed especially on risky borders like Mpondwe in Kasese if you are to intercept the illegal wildlife across the border” Mr. Abel Gulu, the Uganda Revenue Authority Law Enforcement officer said during the UWA awareness meeting that was held at the border with all security agencies in the area.

Mr Gulu said smugglers use several tricks to evade being detected by security agencies.
“ I want to tell you that smugglers are very clever given the recent incident where ivory pieces were cut short , mixed with cassava and Matooke sucks that were crossing the border” Mr. Gulu said.

Uganda wildlife authority has embarked on border security operatives sensitization campaign on illegal wildlife trade and trafficking following several cases of tracking in illegal wildlife.

He noted that effective next year, the construction of one modern stop centre with a scanner machine installed will make checking of luggage easy.
“We are committed to minimizing wildlife crime using joint crime intelligence” he said.

He says where URA fails, UWA should be able to build on its intelligence to bridge the gap.
Mr Spencer Birungi , the officer in charge of immigration officer at Uganda’s Mpondwe thanked uwa for the timely meeting and confessed that he had not minded much about the wildlife species being illegally smuggled.

“Illegal wildlife trade and trafficking is one of illegal cross border crimes. Ourselves being in the know of such gives us an advantage to curb them down since we deal with people every day” Birungi said.

Mr Arthur Nahamya, the Border Internal security officer at Mpondwe tasked UWA officials to carry such message to the people in the sub-counties neighboring DR CONGO and the park so that they can be aware of the compensation slot and punishment once caught.

ILLEGAL TRADE

Meanwhile, security officials working at Uganda –DR Congo border at Mpondwe in Kasese have tipped Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to invest in intelligence on the border line to fight against illegal trade in wild animals.

Mr Abel Gulu, the Uganda Revenue Authority Law Enforcement officer, said smugglers use several tricks to evade being detected by security agencies.
Mr Gulu was speaking during the UWA awareness meeting that was held at the border with all security agencies.
Mr Gulu said: “I want to tell you that smugglers are very clever given the recent incident where ivory pieces were cut short and, mixed with cassava and matooke sucks that were crossing the border,” Mr Gulu said.

UWA has embarked on border security operatives sensitisation campaign on illegal wildlife trade and trafficking.
He noted that effective next year, the construction of one modern stop centre with a scanner machine installed will make checking of luggage easily.

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