By Lake Zone Watch Writer
Defence and security agencies in Mara region have been ordered to be ruthless to economic saboteurs who enter the famed Serengeti National Park (SENAPA) with intent to kill the country’s treasure of wild animals.
Serengeti National Park is a designated World Heritage Site with its teeming wildlife which has become a spectacle for local and international tourists visiting Tanzania.
On a visit of Serengeti district on Friday , the Mara Regional Commissioner Col. Evans Mtambi said Serengeti boasts of being the World Heritage Site and a dependable source of government revenue and therefore it strongly needs protection against poachers and other evil characters craving to sabotage its wealth.
“SENAPA is a World Heritage Site and a reliable source of government revenue. Nobody should play with it; and if there are people harbouring evil motives they should immediately stop that,” Col. Mtambi warned when talking to leaders of Serengeti district council and the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi at Mbalibali ward.
” We’ll be at a loss if SENAPA and defence and security organs neglect their responsibility. I warn illegal hunters and poachers engaged in the illegal trade of wildlife meat to find alternative means of living,” he added.
He appealed to the SENAPA management to ensure that the thousands of animals roaming in the Serengeti grasslands are well protected at the same time warning villagers against the habit of attacking Tanzania National Park game wardens overseeing the managements of the wild animals.
On the same occasion, Mtambi heard various complaints raised by villagers centred on land disputes, water, roads and the sale of livestock found grazing in the national park.
He also gave an opportunity to former illegal hunters to give testimony on how they were sabotaging Serengeti’s conservation efforts.
The ex-illegal hunters narrated how some of them died after being attacked by the wild animals such as elephants or bitten by venomous snakes.
“When we go hunting there is a danger of being bitten by snakes or being attacked by elephants. Sometimes we wish to call the game wardens on patrol,” said one of the ex-illegal hunters of Mbalibali village.