Kampala The elephant population in Uganda's wildlife reserves and game parks has been growing steadily to about 5,000 since the near depletion of the gigantic mammals under the regime of late dictator Idi Amin, a top conservation official said Wednesday. Ecologists say during the late 1960s, jungles in the east African country's wilderness were teeming with over 30,000 elephants, in both gazetted areas and elephant migratory corridors.
When army general Amin seized power in a military coup in 1971, elephants were hunted down with impunity by both his security forces and marauding poachers for ivory during the lawlessness that was characteristic of the dictator's eight-year bloody regime.
Surving elephants fled to neighbouring Congo. The animals were not protected at all, the acting director of the state-owned Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) Sam Mwandha told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
By the time Amin's regime fell, the elephant population had dwindled to 2,000.
"Aggressive conservation efforts and political commitment to protect the elephants in their six main wildlife protected areas has increased their numbers during the past 20 years," Mwandha said.
"There were over 30,000 elephants in the 1960s. The number of elephants was 2,000 in 1982 and 2,500 between 1999-2002.
"As we talk now, we are estimating the numbers to be between 4,000 and 5,000 and the same trend applies to hippos and buffaloes. We are seeing the numbers going up with time although it might be difficult to get to the 1960s levels," he said.
Well-armed game rangers at Uganda's 12 national game parks and wildlife reserves have been vigilant in protecting the elephants.
The largest number of elephants - about 3,000 - are found in the Queen Elizabeth National Park that lies on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). During the chaotic Amin days, the elephants fled this park fled to the adjoining Virunga National Park in eastern Congo.
The Ugandan army has been protecting some of the 1,000 elephants in Murchison Falls National park in the northern region where Lords Resistance Army (LRA) rebels have been fighting a 20-year rebellion and have a habit of infiltrating the park for game meat.
"We have our armed rangers working with sister agencies. We work with the army especially in areas which are insecure to protect the elephants. UWA works with the local government and the police," Mwandha told dpa.
The UWA has set up a system around the game parks under which the local communities are involved in the conservation efforts through sensitization and the sharing of the income accrued from tourism.
In the fight against poachers, members of the community have been lured into acting as informers and this has led to the arrest of would-be poachers.
"We work together and share information. We are working with the community and we discuss with them how we can better manage the protection of the animals in these areas and how they can benefit. We get intelligence information from the community about potential poachers," Mwandha said.
Elephants, which have been classified as endangered by the international conservation community, are a major contributor to Uganda's tourist sector which grows at around 25 per cent annually, with over 500,000 tourists visiting the country every year.
