|
Wild Life Returns En Masse to South Sudan
By Ngor Arol
Gerang
Hippos’ tunnel-like
paths have been found in tall grass and mud as evidenced
by the deep footprints the hippos made as they exited
Boma to nearby, papyrus-covered islands, the warden
training officer in the Government of Southern Sudan
Ministry of Wild Life, Conservation and Tourism, Mr
Lomoro Wande has said on Friday after a ministerial
briefing at the Juba Raha Hotel.
He further added
that few animals can dislodge a large herd of these
fierce beasts except maybe an even larger herd of
elephants. He said that he had received a report that
there were some 50 elephants peacefully grazing on their
newly reclaimed territory of Boma.
‘It’s like a
miracle to see these animals return’, said James Loro, a
former Minister of Wilde Life, Conservation and Tourism
in his office a month ago after returning from Nimule
where he had gone to graduate wardens.
Sudan’s 22-year
civil war between North and South, Africa’s longest and
bloodiest conflict drove out nearly all the south’s
elephants along with large numbers of other wildlife.
Earlier, the
officers said that after two years of relative peace,
most of the animals are reported to have come back to
this area of south Sudan in one of the world’s most
dramatic movements of animals. He said that wildlife
services estimate 7,000 elephants have returned, along
with some 1,500 giraffes and about 500 oryx antelopes,
both thought to have left the country forever. Lions,
leopards and a wide variety of gazelles, some of them
unique to Sudan, are being spotted too.
In a February
aerial survey, the Government of Southern Sudan in
collaboration with a US based Wildlife Conservation
Society estimated that herds of antelope and gazelle
numbered 1.3 million are believed to have returned to
Southern Sudan.
‘We’re at peace
with them and they don’t mind us’, said Okot Joseph from
Nimule at a press interview at the Juba Post office.
The largest mammals
on earth, elephants live in herds that migrate through
vast territories. They can live for decades, and their
memory is legendary. Wardens in Nimule say about 350
elephants have crossed over the Ugandan border into the
Nimule Park.
 |
The Southerner’s
pride in the majestic animals is clear. The wardens
insist that only herds originally from the area have
returned, saying the elephants were driven by a desire
to come home, since there is no threat of violence
chasing them out of neighbouring Uganda or Kenya.
‘If they are coming
back, it’s because they know where their homeland is’,
said Maj Gen Alfred Akuoch, the Undersecretary of south
Sudan’s Ministry of Environment, Wildlife Conservation
and Tourism yesterday in the same Ministerial briefing
at the Juba Hotel.
Lone elephant
elders were first spotted exploring their old
territories, and Akuoch noted, ‘when they see the region
is at peace and that no one shoots them, they bring back
their whole family’.
|
During an interview
with Pagan Amum, the SPLM Secretary General, at Juba TV
said ‘we are hoping that if peace holds, tourism can
help fund our growing economy. He further went on to say
that the government of Southern Sudan through its
Ministry of Wild Life Conservation and Tourism plans to
open a safari lodge at Nimule next year and hopes to
attract 1,000 tourists in the first year.
He further added
that the government is also planning to reopen a dozen
national parks throughout south Sudan where the
estimated human population of 8 million is vastly
outnumbered by wild animals. He continued to say that
not all animals have been killed or chased out by the
war. Large herds took refuge from the battles and from
poachers in a vast, impenetrable zone of swamps in south
Sudan’s heartland known as the Sudd.
Major Alfred Isaac,
Wardens Officer in Nimule, vows to protect the elephant
herds from poachers in the 1,000 square kilometer (400
square miles ) park. He said that we have trained 190
wardens but this number is from former SPLM soldiers who
are now equipped with 20 automatic rifles, one jeep and
two motorcycles. He said wildlife has been his passion
since he was a child, listening to village elders tell
stories of the animals. ‘there was the elephant, the
hare and nasty Mr Hyena’, he chuckled. ‘we have always
lived side by side with these animals’.
Standing at a spot
overlooking Nimule Park’s vast savannah, he pointed
toward the bend in the river where elephants grazed. ‘We
want to make sure they stay’, he said.
Source: Juba Post (23-30 November 2007), p. 11.
Published from Juba, South Sudan
Related links:
Sudan Tribune /
PBS /
Live Science /
Truthout
* *
* * *
* *
* * *
posted 6 December 2007 |
