Tunduru gets two aircraft to monitor wildlife protection

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).