Some two families in Patira West village, Purongo Sub County in Nwoya district on Wednesday night resorted to setting some of their clothes on fire as a drastic measure to drive away stray elephants eating their stored food crops.
The herd of 10 elephants is said to have invaded Patira West Village at around 11:00pm and removed roofs from the grass thatched houses to access four bags of maize and millet belonging to Otto Bosco and only identified as Justo.
Otto Benson, the Local Council Three Chairperson of Purongo Sub County said the families could have lost all their crops had they not been creative.
Otto said that the elephants have resorted to targeting people’s houses after finding that the crops have all been harvested.
On January 7th, 2023, a 65-year-old woman identified as Atto Joyce lost all her millet crop to a stray elephant that stormed her storage house and ate the cereal.
A study by Japanese scientists shows that elephants sniffers are five times more powerful than people’s noses, twice that of dogs, and even stronger than the previous known record-holder in the animal kingdom: rats.
