PAMS Foundation, an institution that supports the country’s wildlife conservation, has supplied two patrol aircraft to Tunduru district authorities to facilitate efforts to contain raids from elephants now invading their residential areas.
The Foundation’s Coordinator, Mr
Maximillan James, said here yesterday that the planes would be used to
monitor people who are implicated in poaching, saying residents should
report to the authorities when elephants invade their residential areas.
Mr James was speaking during a tour by
the Tunduru DC Juma Homera, who is also the district’s chair on security
and defense, at Wenje Village of Nalasi Division, where two elephants
are said to have been killed by the residents.
However, Mr James urged the residents
not to kill elephants and that they should plant chillies near their
homes, pointing out that the plant was “the safest way to intimidate the
animals.” He noted that the Foundation uses different ways to fight
poaching and to safeguard animals, along with property belonging to
people living next to wildlife sanctuaries.
Acting Director for antipoaching
operations, Mr Robert Mande, said some 320 suspects had so far been
arrested on suspicions of poaching, and that 284 of them had been
brought to court. He advised those still ‘committing poaching’ to stop
in their tracks, and revealed that the number of elephants killed by
poachers had dropped from 184 to 84.
Meanwhile, Mr Homera has ordered those
who illegally own guns to surrender them to police posts, saying the
district authorities had since discovered that some residents were
“doing barter trade” under which the guns were being exchanged for food
with residents of a neighbouring country.
Mr Homera mentioned some of the suspects
as Juma Saidi Ally (36) ,Mwini Omary (24), Salumu Charamanda Aski (46),
Kalengo Mkenda( 45), Fadhili Mohamed (43), Abduli Shaibu (37), Ahamad
Yasini (30) and Rashid Hausi (46).
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