It dawned well with Bridget Katulinde little knowing that she would fall an easy prey to an elephant incursion in the night of Monday at the usual Bugana-Kicooke Village that has been overridden by elephants in Bugana Parish, Buliisa Sub-county in Buliisa District.
The 22-year-old met her fate at around 11pm when she had gone to drive away a herd of elephants that had invaded the family garden destroying food crops in that arid part of Bunyoro region in mid-western Uganda.
Katulinde was followed by her younger sibling to chase away the destructive animals that have for long strayed from Murchison (Kabaleega) Falls National Park due to lack of an electric fence around the game park to keep them confined in conservation area despite numerous promises from the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA).
Mr Kamanda Kabagambe, the Buliisa Sub-county Local Government Chairman, told Kazi-njema’s Joseph Uzelle, that the mission to drive away the elephants, turned fatal when the killer elephant charged from behind mauling Katulinde.
This coerced her brother to rush back home with the sad news who in turn immediately rushed to the scene where they found Katulinde lying unconsciously in a pool of blood with injuries in the legs, chest and a fractured left hand.
She was conveyed and admitted to Kigoya Health Centre before being referred to Buliisa General Hospital for further medical management where she was pronounced dead shortly after arrival.
This is the fifth death by elephants in Buliisa sub-county since 2022, according to the area chairman who urges UWA to speed up the fencing process of the conservation area to salvage the constituents from deaths and crop destruction.
