Africa-Press – Tanzania. PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan has consoled the people who were affected in one way or another by some marauding Elephants in Same and Mwanga districts, within Kilimanjaro region.
President Samia’s message was delivered by the Deputy Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Mary Masanja, while addressing the people of Maore Ward, Same district recently.
Ms Masanja said that President Samia has assured the residents that the government was working on strategies to address the effects of elephants’ invading settlements and farms in the future.
Ms Masanja said the plans included embarking on a programme meant to educate people residing close to reserved areas, on how to drive away the invading elephants without any effect.
“This education will be provided to the residents by the wildlife conservation experts and it will go hand in hand with provision of equipment used to drive away safely the invading elephants,” she pointed out.
She further said: “The government will also continue compensating all those who were affected by the elephant invasions; so that they can meet their needs after their crops are destroyed, because this is what they were hoping to use as food or sell to earn a living.
“We all understand well that there are those who lost their lives; no human life can be compensated, but what we are doing is to heal the pain of the families affected by losing their beloved ones.”
In addition, Deputy Minister Masanja said another step will involve digging several water ponds inside and outside the National Parks, to minimize interactions between the animals and villager in water fetching points.
“This will help prevent people from trespassing onto National Parks to find water for their livestock.
It will also limit wildlife from invading residential areas in search of drinking water,” she said.
Elaborating, Ms Masanja included introducing a special patrol programme by Game Rangers from the Tanzania National Parks (TANAPA) to patrol all prone areas the elephant invade as another step to address the problem.
However, she called upon the people living around the Mkomazi National Park (Mkonapa) to stop driving their livestock into national parks.
On her part, Same East Member of Parliament (MP) Ms Anne Kilango Malecela, said the arrival of the Deputy Minister was a great comfort to the people affected by the elephant invasion.
“These citizens have been affected from time to time with elephants’ invasions from Mkonapa, without hearing a word of consolation from the upper echelons of the government, your arrival here is a great comfort as they will find answers to many questions they were asking themselves in relation to this case,” she said.
Earlier in his presentation, Maore Ward Councilor Mr Rashid Gasper said one of the challenges faced by those affected by the elephant invasion was the inability to support themselves due to delays in remitting compensations for them.
“For example, only 136 out of hundreds of people who were affected by the 2019 elephant invasions have been compensated, many others have not been compensated, let alone those who have been affected in the following years,” he said.
