NEWS- The international Crane foundation (ICF) has made their first crane census in Rukiga district.
Accompanied by the set community groups (crane custodians), officials from international Crane foundation on Friday last week engaged in counting the number of cranes living in Rukiga district.
According to Western Uganda ICF field officer Ms. Phionah Orishaba, over 480 Crane were recorded though some were not tailed due to technical challenges.
Ms. Orishaba told Journalists that during the activity, they discovered an increase in cranes since the foundation started working in the area 3 years back.
She attributed an increase on cranes population in Rukiga district to the sensitizing projects introduced by the International Crane Foundation (ICF) which include; wetland conservation (habitants to cranes), educating communities on Modern farming like planting Napier grass species and digging trenches in hilly areas to control the velocity of running water to swamps which prompts farmers to encroach on swamps chasing their fertile soils.
The International Crane Foundation East African researcher and Monitoring specialist Ogoma Maurice said that they are looking at measures to ensure that the increasing cranes do not destroy peoples’ crops.
Vanancio Byarugaba and Rutasikwa James Residents and crane custodians said that during the assessment, farmers were complaining of cranes destroying their crops, mainly those farming near their habitats.
Rutasikwa said that some Roads are in bad conditions, in some areas making it hard for them to reach other crane habitants.
He also highlighted a challenge of cranes crossing the border to Rwanda in the areas of Kamwezi Sub County, saying that when they close, they cannot come back due to Rwandans who kill and eat them.