19:57
Six lions have been slaughtered by angry villagers outside
Tarangire National Park in western Arusha, Tanzania, tainting Tanzania’s
reputation as one of the remaining world’s lions' safe heaven.
Nearly 100 furious Olasiti villagers at Minjingu area shot down two
lions and speared to death four others in retaliation following the
stray lions allegedly attacking and marauding three donkeys in a kraal
(an enclosure for cattle or other livestock).
Natural Resources and Tourism Minister Lazaro Nyalandu said the
government was shocked and saddened by the incident, saying law
enforcers had launched a manhunt in search of ringleaders behind the
mass killing of the lions.
“This mass killing of lions casts a bleak future for our wildlife treasure,” Mr. Nyalandu stressed.
He pleaded with communities bordering the protected areas to refrain from taking the law into their own hands.
“Whenever human-wildlife conflicts emerge, they should report to authorities,” Nyalandu stressed.
Nkaiti Ward Councilor Mr. Simon Abel said over the phone that the
battle between villagers and stray lions also left four villagers
injured by the lions, some seriously.
The villagers nursing their wounds at Monduli District Hospital were
Jackson Mediutieki, Loserian Tobiko, Lebahati Korudini, Jackson Mrefu,
and Msee Simon.
The Tanzania Association of Tour Operators (TATO) Chairman, Mr. Willy
Chambullo, condemned the mass killing of lions in the strongest terms
possible, saying wildlife conservation was everybody’s responsibility.
“Our hearts are bleeding. I wish the villagers should have asked us
to compensate for their donkeys rather than slaughter the rare animals,”
Mr. Chambullo explained.
TATO CEO Sirili Akko said that unfortunate incident demonstrates the communities do not see the value of wildlife.
“We need to come together - public and private sectors - so that we
can strategize how best we can educate the local people adjacent to
protected areas to coexist with wildlife in harmony,” Mr. Akko
explained.
There has been a "catastrophic fall" in the number of lions in the
wildlife-rich Tanzania in the last decade, thanks to the retaliation
killings.
A recent survey indicates that the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem, a key
country lions' refuge, has been losing an average of 25 lions annually
in the period under review.
Findings by the Tarangire Lion Project show 226 lions have been slaughtered between 2004-2013 for marauding livestock.
Dr. Bernard Kissui - a leading lion researcher - warned over the
extinction of the entire big cats population and hurting a $1.9 billion
tourism industry, if affirmative actions are not taken.
Lions are one of Africa’s big five animals in which Tanzania, just as
any other African countries with abundant wildlife, has been using them
as a major tourism marketing tool to attract tens of thousands of eager
tourists each year.
Others are elephants, rhinos, leopards, and buffalos.
“Retaliation killing of lions is a silent but real threat to lion
populations in the Tarangire–Manyara ecosystem where incidences of
livestock keepers spearing and poisoning them have been recorded,” Dr.
Kissui said.
The worst lion mass killing was in 2009 where over 26 lions were slaughtered by angry-villagers near Tarangire National Park.
Official estimates show that there are between 15,000-16,000 lions
surviving mostly in national parks and game reserves with a smaller
population in unprotected areas.
This is the largest population in Africa and about 40 percent of the total population of remaining lions in the world.
Kishimay Ndalepoi, one of the Maasai villagers, said the lion was considered a great enemy in the Maasai community.
“Wherever the Maasai encounter a lion, the only thing which comes up
in his or her mind is killing it,” said Ndalepoi, adding that a lion is
an enemy, which could kill human beings or livestock.
Available records show that the entire Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem
faces a massive declining of wildlife populations due to an intolerable
growth of human population coupled with ever-increasing demand for land
uses that is not compatible with conservation interests.
Various studies indicate that there has been a constant increase of
unsustainable exploitation of natural resources and land uses such as
cultivation, overgrazing, charcoal burning, and settlements within the
wildlife routes and corridors flaring human-wildlife conflicts.
Conservationists argue that such detrimental impacts of human
activities have since been felt on core areas, as well as foraging
grounds, breeding sites, dispersal areas, wildlife migratory routes, and
corridors.
The consequence of this, experts say in a study, is a growing threat
of land degradation and fragmentation, which slowly but surely is
putting the Tarangire-Manyara ecosystem at risk of becoming an
ecological island.
By implications in the long run, the entire ecosystem will see a
massive declining of wildlife populations, genetic erosion,n and species
extinction.
In additional, the security of the resident animals in fragmented
habitats becomes uncertain, because once squeezed into small patches,
animals cannot easily escape from their enemies, like predators and
human influence.
Since no wildlife protected area can be a self-contained ecological
unit, core areas linking Tarangire National Park with other wildlife
protected areas and habitats should remain intact for the park to
maintain its reputation as an important biodiversity hot spot.
Deogratius Gamassa, a renowned-conservationist and the former
Principal for African Wildlife Management College-Mweka, is on record as
saying the eviction of the people within the Tarangire-Manyara
ecosystem and the two parks expansion were two possible options.
Source: http://www.eturbonews.com
