The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) has sent more people to the Pian Upe Game Reserve to stop poaching and illegal grazing from getting out of hand.
Residents have continued to poach animals and graze their livestock in the reserve.
He said the rangers have been deployed to carry out daily patrolling of the game boundaries.
Okware said that the Karimojong and the Sabiny community next door have been illegally killing a lot of animals, like dikas, small and large antelopes, birds, and buffalos, while using torches to scare the animals.
He said that they had caught about 64 poachers from January to September. They were then sent to Namalu Prisons in Nakapiripirit District.
According to Okware, the poachers claim it is hunger driving them to poach. He said they started registering an increase in poaching in April when the region started registering the same cases of people dying of hunger.
But Moses Lokiru, who is the Secretary of LCI Namalera village, wants UWA to keep holding meetings to help people understand how important it is to live with wildlife.
“Don’t get tired, we must continue sensitizing our communities so that they can live peacefully with the wildlife,” he said.
Lokiru also asked the government to give the starving families food to help them stay alive.
Yacobo Lomuria, another resident, said that when families have food, poaching is on the decline.