.jpg)
Wildlife conservation-nists are concerned by the continued use of naked electricity transmission lines, arguing that they are yet another hindrance to the protection of Crested Cranes; Uganda’s national emblem.
Godfrey Mutemba, the Lwengo district Senior Natural Resources Officer, says that in addition to other human habits that include poisoning and destruction of the cranes,' natural breeding grounds the wetlands, some of the Crested Cranes are also dying due to electro-cution after they un-knowingly collide with un-insulated power transmission lines, that run through their habitats and roost sites.
He says that, their investigations have established that some of the Crested Cranes are perching on live power transmission lines, which exposes them to the risk of death by electro-cution.
Notably, Lwengo district has two big gazetted wetlands of Kiyanja-Kaku, and Kyoja, which are conserved as some of the few natural breeding grounds for Crested Cranes in the whole of the country.
But according to Mutemba, in a period of one year, they have recorded 21 Crested Cranes that have died of causes related to electrocution that occur within the known habitat areas of Lwengo district.
He however says that they have considered engaging the electricity transmission and distribution companies, to raise the concerns and appeal to them to insulate the power lines as a safety measure.
He adds that they also want the power transmission lines to be branded with multicolored flyers, that can work as reflectors to make the wires more visible and eventually prevent the cranes from colliding with them while flying.
Ibrahim Kittata, the Lwengo district Chairperson also observed a need by all stakeholders to jointly put intervention to eliminate all the threats to the survival of crested cranes.
Kitatta says that it is high time all concerned stakeholders also joined the campaign with relevant interventions to save the country’s precious emblem from extinction.
Uganda has lost 80 percent of its total Crested Crane population of 35,000 birds as per the census conducted in 1995