Tackle human-wildlife conflict
Reports of elephants and lions terrorising residents of a village bordering Mikumi National Park in Mvomero District, Morogoro Region, are unsettling, to say the least. While elephants have for the past fortnight or so been destroying food crops, livestock keepers have been counting their losses in the form of cattle, goats and sheep preyed on by lions.
As the authorities step in to address the issue, there are a number of fundamental questions that come to the fore. Have the wild animals strayed from the confines of Mikumi National Park, or have humans encroached on the boundaries of the protected area?
Cases of human-wildlife conflict have increased markedly in various parts of the country in recent years. However, in most cases this is not just a result of wild animals leaving their natural habitat and invading faraway human settlements.
It is common knowledge that people have in recent years been moving closer to national parks, and there are documented cases of farmers and livestock keepers actually settling in protected areas, prompting the authorities to evict them.
There is a need to establish what exactly is the cause of this latest episode of human-wildlife conflict, and take appropriate remedial action.
