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Buliisa, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | A 75-year-old man has died after being attacked by a stray elephant in Buliisa district.
The deceased has been identified as Mogo Ungyera, a resident of Waiga village in Bugana Parish. He was attacked on Sunday evening when the elephant strayed from the Murchison Falls National Park into his tobacco nursery bed.
Ungyera died on the spot while his two colleagues one identified as Ogen Mungu and another only identified as Abraham sustained injuries on their heads, legs, hands and chest. The two sounded an alarm that attracted area residents who rushed and rescued them and are currently admitted at Buliisa General Hospital.
John Tibenda, a resident of Waiga told Uganda Radio Network in an interview that the elephant attacked the trio as they were together in a tobacco nursery bed garden. He says people were alerted by an alarm sounded by the victims and rushed.
He says when residents rushed to find out what was happening to the victims, they found that the elephant had already killed Ungyera. He wants UWA officials to come on the ground and sensitise the community on how they can drive away the elephants whenever they encroach into people’s homes.
Charles Orombi, also a resident says it was too late for them to save Ungyera’s life since he had already breathed his last by the time residents arrived at the crime scene.
Gilbert Onyutha, another resident explains that the attacks on communities neighbouring the Murchison falls national park by elephants have become unbearable yet UWA is doing nothing to contain the situation.
Bashir Hangi, the Uganda Wildlife Authority-UWA spokesperson could not be reached for comment as our repeated phone calls to his known mobile telephone number went unanswered.
In December last year, more than twenty elephants from Murchison falls national park strayed into several villages in Bulisa destroying several hectares of garden crops. The affected villages were Bugana, Kicoke, and Nganzi villages in Bugana sub-county.
The elephants reportedly destroyed several acres of cassava, maize, beans, sorghum, and banana plantations among others.
In August 2022, residents of Buliisa near Murchison falls National Park petitioned the Uganda Wildlife Authority -UWA over the rampant invasion of elephants and Buffaloes into the community causing massive destruction to their garden crops.
In their petition addressed to UWA then, the residents noted that they are being raided by wild animals like elephants and Buffaloes, which destroy their crops and cause injuries to the community members.
The residents in the petition wanted UWA to compensate them for crops destroyed and injuries inflicted on some of the community members by the wild animals.
The aggrieved residents were from more than 20 villages neighbouring Murchison Falls National Park, especially from the sub-counties of Butiaba, Buliisa Ngwedu, Biiso, and Buliisa town council, which all share a common border with the park.
The residents then explained in the petition that several hectares of cassava, maize, beans, sweet potatoes, jack fruits, pawpaws, and bananas were destroyed by wild animals over the years yet no intervention was being undertaken by UWA.
The more than 1,000 residents who signed the petition also demanded that UWA erects an electric fence around Murchison Falls National Park to prevent further invasion of the animals into the community.
In 2018, the government through UWA said it would erect an electric fence around all national parks across the country and the program was meant to start in the financial year 2019/2020.
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