The park border runs along the Bukorwe escarpment/ridge which lends itself towards reducing crop raiding through the construction of a trench along the crest of the ridge. The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), along with the local community, has begun hand digging a 20km, 2 by 2 meter trench as the first part of a larger strategy towards mitigating crop raiding in the region. The trench will be dug from the Ishasha Customs village through Bukorwe to Rushorosa. In various places, the Bukorwe ridge has small valleys breaking up the escarpment edge. These areas are unsuitable for a trench. These areas funnel wildlife into the crops and as such are ëhotspotsí for both crop raiding and for future weaknesses in the mitigation strategy. Therefore a reinforced bank will be built that will provide too much of an obstacle for elephants and other mammals to cross. In effect this will be a solid wall, reinforced with building wire, cement and rubble. Along the wall, to avoid elephants gouging and ripping at the structure, cut wire will point out from the wall and placements for olfactory and sound based deterrents will be provided. Two to three meters in front of the barrier will be two, three-foot concrete walls. These will be far enough away from the large barrier to ensure that the elephant will not be able to reach the bank and high enough that the elephant must struggle to lift its feet over.


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Elephants, Crops and People


african elephant

IEF Elephants, Crops and People
(initiated 2006)
 
 
 
 
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