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SAFE: Ndyakira and Yoyo, chimps at the Ngamba Island sanctuary |
THEY are our cousins, but that is no
guarantee that they will not turn on us. Rogue chimps have made life a living hell for some people, writes Gerald Tenywa
HORDES of villagers brandishing sticks and machetes walk in single file on a footpath in Kitomi-Kakasi village, Bushenyi District. They are in a sorrowful mood, their bare feet pounding the ground like the sounds of a drum in an African ritual. Their mission is to rescue a baby boy that was snatched by a chimpanzee from a mother while she was digging on the edge of Kashoha-Kitomi forest. Their menacing humming leads the chimp to drop the baby, killing it as it flees in panic.
The villagers, gnashing their teeth, swear to banish the chimps, our closest cousins, from their village.
Moses Buchanagandi, 14, is another victim in Kibwona village around Kasokwa forest reserve in Masindi District. He recalls his experience at the hands of a chimp: “I had never received such a beating in my life.”
Buchanagandi was bathing in Kasokwa River when the chimps ambushed him and his friends. His companions took off as soon as they heard loud sounds. However, he stopped to dress up and was surrounded. One of the chimps, with a baby on her back, pounced on Buchanagandi as he attempted to flee. He tripped and fell, rolling over three times. The chimp got hold of his legs and dragged him deep into the forest. “I thought I was going to die. Then I passed out,” says Buchanagandi.
The chimp crushed one of his testicles. He was hospitalised at Kinyara, then Masindi and Hoima hospitals, for three months, without much change in his condition. His testicle was stitched back, but his penis keeps getting blocked.
“I had another operation three months ago. I still have a lot of pain,” he says.
These are two of the chilling testimonies from around the protected areas in western Uganda, where some chimps stray and unleash terror on the villagers.
At a global meeting that will bring together conservationists and researchers on primates between June 25 and 30 in Entebbe, the plight of primates and poor communities around the protected areas is likely to be one of the thorny issues.
The Kitomi-Kakasi villagers are afraid and unsettled. Their hopes for compensation are not yielding anything and some of the environmental laws do not favour them.
“It is ridiculous that the law protects animals and leaves out human beings,” says Hassan Mulopa, an advocacy officer under EMPAFORM, a four-year programme undertaken by a network of civil society organisations.
Under the wildlife and forestry laws, the chimps are protected as endangered animals and killing them attracts a penalty of up to three years in custody, sh3m or both. However, the law is silent on compensation if the chimps attack the villagers.
In the case of Kakasi where a baby was killed, the National Forestry Authority (NFA) has not settled the claims of compensation.
“We cannot handle this because it is not provided for under the law,” says Patrick Musiime Rwobusheru, the regional head of NFA in western-south western Uganda.
UWA chief Moses Mapesa says it is not possible to offer compensation. “Farmers will always inflate the losses,” Mapesa says. “How much money would you pay to compensate human life?”
Until recently there was harmony between the chimps and the people. The chimps had enough to survive on without hurting the human population.
Mapesa says this is no longer the case because of habitat loss to human activity.
There is no difference between the practices of today’s farmers and their ancestors. This should change since the human population is increasing and land for cultivation is shrinking.
This state of farming affairs this has resulted in increasing conversion of the forest habitats into farmland to produce food for the escalating population, which is growing at 3.4%, one of the fastest rates globally. Most farmers believe that land under forests is fertile.
The word ‘destruction’ has become an understatement in some areas like Mubende, Kibale, Hoima and Masindi which Sunday Vision visited.
Immigrants from overpopulated areas like Kabale have invaded the western parts of the country, clearing large parts of the forests, which have taken decades to grow.
“As the forests are cut down the chimps become homeless,” says Dr. Gilbert Basuta of Makerere University. “That is why they often get in contact with humans these days.”
Most of the forest patches between large forest reserves like Budongo, Bugoma and Kibale in western Uganda are passages for primates. “They are migratory routes,” says Basuta.
Once the populations of chimps are cut off from larger ones, inbreeding would set in and the chimps would be easily wiped out in case of disease outbreaks.
In Kasokwa forest reserve, a small riverine forest that was once connected to Budongo, a group of 15 chimps have been isolated by farming activities.
There are no land use plans to guide farmers on where to grow crops. One would expect the farmers around Budongo to grow crops that are unpalatable to primates near the borders of the forest and then grow the sugarcane where the chimps cannot reach.
However, plans are underway for a programme that will open up the migratory corridors.
“It is an expensive venture as it involves compensation in some cases for people to give up land for chimps,” says Richard Kyamanywa, a chimp activist.
Getting the chimps protected is like walking on a path strewn with of thorns. But there is hope since the locals still have the goodwill. “Chimps are creations of God. We can’t kill them if they don’t cause harm,” says Asiheri Kyamulinde, Buchanagandi’s grandfather.
Published on: Saturday, 17th June, 2006
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