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The manager of the Mole National Park, near Damongo in the West Gonja District of the Northern Region, Mr. Farouk Umar, has attributed the inability of his outfit to stop the killings of animals at the park to lack of resources.
He said government and non-governmental organizations need to resource the Wildlife Division and management of the Mole National Park to enable them track the animal’s movement and their well-being.
Mr. Farouk revealed that recruitment has not been done for the past ten years to fill the available vacancies to aid in the protection of the park and its natural resources.
Speaking to the Daily Guide after some residents of Laribanga, a suburb of Damongo, killed two elephants that were returning to the park, Mr Farouk said management of the park are under-resourced and lack the capacity to handle such emergency situations.
He pointed out that the animals are not harmful; hence the public should learn to live with them.
“When we even feel threatened in our homes and at the farms by the animals, we should call on the authorities for help and advice rather than taking the law into our own hands, the few men we have here know how to control animals outside the park.”
He urged the public to learn how to coexist with the creatures, because they cannot be eliminated from the earth.
According to him, any act to eliminate the animals is an attempt to eliminate part of the environment.
He suggested that Ministry of Tourism, Art and Culture should come out with modalities to start the financing of the Mole Park; this, according to him, will preserve the creatures and increase tourism in the country.
Mr. Farouk entreated also the youth and Chiefs of the area to help expel the few criminals from the community for sanity to prevail. This, he believed would redeem the good image of the area.
The Mole National Park, Daily Guide learnt, is one of the largest parks in West Africa.