Gov’t asked to intervene in human-animal conflicts in Buliisa District

By Kato Paul

Last week the media reported about the Buliisa leaders including the legislators threatening to demonstrate over the failure by the government of Uganda and Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to compensate the families affected by animals and the failure to put the strong measures that can stop the increased human-animal conflicts caused by elephants from Murchison National Park.

It is noted that the district leaders and legislators wanted to mobilize the residents to demonstrate because the UWA and government are turning a deaf ear as stray animals continue killing people and destroying their property and farms. Currently, in the space of one month, at least five people have been killed by the elephants in Buliisa district.

No compensation for the affected families has been done yet in May 2022, the government of Uganda earmarked shs500m for the compensation of the affected people in wildlife conservation areas including Murchison Falls National Park areas.

The government must compensate the affected people because the Uganda Wildlife Act 2019 requires them to compensate the lives of people lost and damages caused by the animals. The human-animal conflicts and its associated challenges in Buliisa need to be a history

According to district leaders in Buliisa, wild animals started straying into communities in 2021, something some people attribute to the oil exploration activities in the park which has limited the space for animals for grazing and breeding including the noise caused by both the machines and workers in the industry.

These attacks have claimed several people some from the garden, and in their homes while children are attacked as they move to school.

They should ensure that strong measures are put in place to ensure that these elephants are not getting out of the National Park and they have stopped wastage of the taxpayer’s money on compensating the victims. They should increase the number of rangers and collaborate with the local communities to monitor the movement of the animals, fencing the national park with electric wires and putting the trenches that can stop the animals from getting out of the national park and stopping the oil activities in the national park.

In addition to that, they should put an adequate budget for handling compensation challenges caused by human-animal conflicts.

Therefore, I call upon the government of Uganda and the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) to take swift action to ensure that the issue of the human conflicts and compensation of the victims in the Buliisa district are

resolved in the short term.

Kato Paul is a research associate and environmental activist.