Kwale based Australian mining firm Base Titanium has partnered with Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) to relocate buffaloes in a bid to resolve human-wildlife conflict in the region.
The collaborative translocation exercise that began last month has so far seen the removal of six buffaloes.
The animals have reportedly become a security threat to residents and a source of food insecurity as they strayed and destroyed farmlands.
The long-running conflict for the shared limited resource has often led to crop raiding, property damages, human deaths, and injury and the retaliatory killing of wildlife.
KWS warden in charge of Shimba Hills game reserve Edward Karanja said several villages that border the mine site and that bore the brunt of human-wildlife conflict will be secured once the exercise is completed.
Karanja who is leading the operation said the villages of Vumbu, Bomani, Fihoni, Magaoni, Mwaloya, Masindeni, Barcelona, Miembeni, and Kibwaga which are situated in close proximity to the Shimba Hills national reserve.
“All these villages affected by the wild animals will be secured once the exercise is finalized,” he said.
The captured buffaloes are being taken to the Tsavo East National Pak where they will have a much wider and safer foraging area.
Base Titanium community relations manager Pius Kassim says the translocation exercise will help communities neighbouring the mining sites to continue their farming activities in a safe environment free from the threat of wildlife attacks.
Kassim on Tuesday said the move become necessary following an increase in human-wildlife clashes due to the competition for limited natural resources in the area.
By Hussein Abdullahi
