The Regional Manager of the Ghana Wildlife Division of the Forestry Commission in charge of Upper East, Upper West, and northern Belt, Joseph Binlinla has cautioned farmers, small scale miners, and charcoal Burners to stay away from encroaching in Government gazette forest reserves as those illegal acts limit the natural habitats of the wildlife and result in the human-wildlife conflict with resultant negative consequences on humans and farm produces.
Speaking in an interview Mr. Binlinla observed that it seemingly appears as if wildlife especially elephant and human conflicts is escalating due to human population overlapping with well-established wildlife territory arguing that before recorded history, there have been wildlife migrations of Elephants and other wildlife including the Angulis, the Dyketes, and snakes. He expressed concern that as a result of population explosion, more land has been put under cultivation in order to feed attributing the encroachment of man into the areas, hitherto known by these wild animals as their preserve long before the settlement of man in those vicinities to the annual destructions by the animals in those particular domains over the years.
While assuring the farmers that measures are being taken by the Wildlife Division to manage the situation for peaceful co-existence. To manage the elephant human conflict Mr. Binlina prevailed on them to adopt crop breeding techniques to go about their farming activities peacefully adding that the relative peace in Ghana makes the country a suitable habitat for the elephants accounting for their high presence in the eastern corridor. The importance of the presence of the African elephants to the ecosystem cannot be overemphasized as they maintain the biodiversity by creating space for smaller animals to feed and have access to water during the dry season, with their high sense of smell they use their trunks to dig out sources of water.
They helping in tree dispersal particularly with the Odum tree, the seed needs to pass through the guts of the elephant before it can germinate and grow to become a habitable tree. In some cultures in Ghana, the tail of an elephant is used as paraphernalia for warriors, on the staff of linguists to signal authority with the ivories used as ornaments.
Apexnewsgh.com/ Ghana/ Prosper Adankai
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