"We want to plead with all stakeholders to educate our people not to shoot at elephants. If you do so, you are putting everybody's life in danger. If you shoot an elephant and it is wounded, it may in turn attack any human in its path," he said.

Mr Naada, who was speaking in Bolgatanga at a stakeholder meeting held to discuss the presence of elephants in the area and the consequencial crop raiding, warned members of the public, especially those who live close to forest reserves saying "you need to be careful, with an elephant in the neighbourhood, because you may shoot and may not kill it, then we will all have a problem on our hands."

He said elephants are sensitive to any colourful attire such as red adding that "if you want to go and view elephants, be careful, don't go so close, stay distance away and watch them. But don't go near."

The Manager said elephants protected their younger ones from harm anytime they moved with them and cautioned that people who come across elephants with their younger offspring needed to be extra careful.

Mr Naada said there is a conflict between women who live around the Datuko area in the Telensi District and elephants who occasionally troop to the forest reserve in that area because the women depended on shea nut trees in the area for their income, whereas the elephants fed on the shea nuts and sometimes pulled down the trees.

He said the forest reserves in the Region served as habitats for elephants and they depended on whatever they saw in the forest for survival.

"We only go there to intrude in their area. That is what they feed on, and so if we want to get money from shea trees, we may have to look at other options," he said.

Mr Naada called for the planting of more shea trees on farms by farmers so that they could harvest for income instead of depending on forest reserves which elephants feed on, and called on the media to help the Commission to educate members of the public on how to coexist peacefully with elephants so they do not pose a threat to human life. 

Madam Paulina Patience Abayage, the Upper East Regional Minister, in a speech read on her behalf, said the increasing numbers of elephants and the consequence of poaching, crop destruction among other concerns in the Region has assumed international dimensions because the migration pattern of the elephants are between southern Burkina Faso, Togo and northern Ghana.

 She said: "In recent times, however, the situation has gradually changed where the animals come into permanent residence in selected areas of their choice within the corridor particularly around Zongoyiri and Tilli forests."

Mr Emmanuel Asore Avoka, the Garu District Chief Executive, in an interview with the media after the programme, said Mr Ussif, 42, was killed in the Garu District last year by elephants, and said the unfortunate incident compelled stakeholders in the District to institute measures such as sensitizations at public gatherings including churches and mosques among others to educate members of the public on how to prevent attacks by elephants.

He said Mr Ussif lost his life when he ran into elephants on his motorbike in a forest reserve and unknown to him the elephants had lost a younger one and were angry.

"Out of fear, he fell off the motorbike and the animals pounced and killed him," he said.