Parks Too Small to Keep Elephants
Moses Akena
27 November 2009


The government should consider creating a safe corridor for elephants to roam about due to congestion in most national game parks, the Amuru Resident District Commissioner, has said.

Mr Edwin Yakobo Komakech told Daily Monitor on Wednesday that increase in the population around Murchison Falls National Game Park has hindered the expansion of the park boundaries created in the 1971 by former president Idi Amin.

Mr Komakech said the corridor should be created from the park to South Sudan. "The number of animals has multiplied and they are squeezed in the park that was created for few animals. They need those corridors to freely move about," he explained.

No figures on the exact numbers of the elephants have yet been released officially.

The woman LC5 councillor for Koch Goma Sub-county which borders the park, Ms Margaret Odong, said residents are now devastated by repeated damages to their crops by the elephants.

Animals from the park also attack domestic animals.

Elephant attack

Last week, several gardens of crops were destroyed by elephants and buffalos from the park.

Park authorities recently gave sub-counties bordering the park Shs40million as compensation for crops eaten by animals, but Mr Komakech said this is too little.

The conservation officer of the park, Mr Kennedy Muswa, recently advised people living near the park to plant tobacco and red pepper which the elephants do not eat.

The way I see it, Park or Safari area corridors are the only thing that will save the African Wildlife in the long term.