The Mole National Park is a tourist site in West Africa, Ghana to the precise, the county has a couple of interesting and wonderful tourist site’s one can visit when in Ghana. Today we are talking about the Mole National Park, which is located in the Northern Region of Ghana, Larabanga to be specific. The park’s lands were set aside as a wildlife refuge in 1958. This park is more or less like a zoo since it has more of some interesting creatures.
The history of Mole is essentially the history of the Gonjas. They are a farming and hunting people of the far past, who wandered the vast savannah for survival, fighting the slave trade. Today’s Gonjas balance themselves between conservation and development, to protect Mole as a major biodiversity spot, a future World Heritage Site and a main destination for visitors.
The park is home to over 93 mammal species, and the large mammals of the park include an elephant population, hippos, buffalo, and warthogs. The park is considered a primary African preserve for antelope species including Kobs, defaasa waterbuck, roan, hartebeest, Oribi, the bushbuck, and two duikers, the red duiker and yellow-backed duiker. Olive baboons, black-white-colobus monkeys, the green vervet, and patas monkeys are the known species of monkey’s resident in the park. Of the 33 known species of reptiles slender snouted and dwarf crocodile is found in the park.
In the 1930s, the British Colonial Administration designated some 2,300 sq. km of the present park as a Game Clearance Area, in an effort to control tsetse flies. The aim was to clear the area of wildlife so that the tsetse flies would have no food and would die out. Habitat was also cleared along rivers and streams. Large numbers of antelopes and buffalos were shot but fortunately the policy of game clearance was abandoned in 1957.
After improvements to the roads leading to the park, the number of visitors to the park increased from 14,600 in 2014 to 17,800 in 2015. Depending on the year, 20-40% of visitors are foreign. It is high time Ghanaians respected and loved what they have, because there is a saying that “We don’t know what we have until we lose it”.
I believe Tourism in Ghana has a long way to go when given serious and unique attention by the Government and the people of Ghana. Long live Ghana.
