A Brief History - Of the Kruger National Park
The Kruger National Park is the largest
sanctuary in the Republic of South-Africa and one of the largest managed and
protected park in the world. It is situated in the northeastern corner of the
country between the Crocodile river in the south and the Limpopo River in the
north. The international border of Mozambique forms the eastern boundary of
the Kruger National Park, and then it follows the Lebombo mountains in the south and carry's on
to the north to the Limpopo River.
The western boundary is very irregular separating private,
commercial land and property from the Kruger National Park. If you
would look at the park from a satellite
Image or on Google Earth you will see it looks like an reversed 'L' and covers an area of 1948528ha or about 20 000km².
The first Europeans that set foot in Mpumalanga Lowveld were 31 men led by Francois de Kruipe. Delagoa Bay and the later Lourenco Marques took over and now it is Maputo, at the time Maputo was under the control of the Dutches in 1725, the Dutch east India Company ordered an expedition to explore from Delagoa Bay to investigate the possibility of expansion and trade with the inner land.
The first Europeans that set foot in Mpumalanga Lowveld were 31 men led by Francois de Kruipe. Delagoa Bay and the later Lourenco Marques took over and now it is Maputo, at the time Maputo was under the control of the Dutches in 1725, the Dutch east India Company ordered an expedition to explore from Delagoa Bay to investigate the possibility of expansion and trade with the inner land.
At he Gomondwane just
North of today's Crocodile Bridge Rest Camp, they met a party of hostile inhabitants and, after a skirmish, beat a hasty
retreat.
The next set of people to pass through the territory were
two parties of Voortrekkers who traveled through the central part of the park,
Crossing into Mozambique via the Shilowa and Mbhatsi
gorges through the Lebombo mountains. In 1844 Chief Commandant A.H Potgieter
came to an agreement with the Portuguese and defined the boundary between South
Africa and Mozambique separating the territories as they are today.
Tow years later Potgieter
bartered with the Swazis to acquire territory between
the Crocodile and the Lepelle rivers.
In 1867 the gold was discovered
in the Lydenburg area and soon people flocked to the area. The Lowveld wet unknown
at the time and soon became famous for its hunting area. The farmers in the
Highfield soon moved down the Escarpment to the Lowveld to find water for their
herds and them selfs finding themselves in a game rich environment and they
continued to hunt.
They were followed by professional
hunters seeking ivory, horns, and skins the game numbers declined rapidly and
in 1884 President S.J.P Kruger proposed in the Transvaal Volksraad that a game sanctuary
must be established to preserve the fast declining of the game. At that stage,
he was the only voice crying in the wilderness.
The public opinion was not favorable
as well at the stage and was only 14 years later that the area between the
crocodile and Sabi Rivers was proclaimed a wildlife sanctuary in which any
person in which any person felt guilty of destroying and hunting if animals were
wounded by someone the person will be prosecuted and penalized.
The proclamation was signed
on 26 March 1898.The small Sabi Game Reserve and the Shingwedzi Game Reserve
were the beginnings of what has grown into the world-renowned Kruger National Park.
The are of the Sabi Game Reserve
was only about 4600km².The first two game rangers were Paul Machiel Bester of the ZAR Police from
Komatipoort. He created and erected the first dwelling area where Skukuza is
situated today. He built a hide from wildebeest skins and had to occasionally repair
it from hyenas and had to frighten them off retrieving lost skins.
The other ranger that was
appointed was Izak Cornelis Holtzhausen from ZAR Police from Nelspruit. The
Anglo-Boer War broke out in 1899 and the Sabi Game Reserve was all but
forgotten.After the Peace of Vereeniging in 1902 the interim government
under Lord Milner decided to re-proclaim the reserve
and appointed Major (later Colonel) James Stevenson-Hamilton as warden.
and appointed Major (later Colonel) James Stevenson-Hamilton as warden.
The Scottish professional soldier obtained a two-year leave
of absence from his regiment to begin the great task of saving what remained of
the once-great herds of game that had been decimated by hunters and both Boer
and British soldiers. He became involved in the welfare of his animal charges
to such an extent that he stayed for more than 40 years, until his retirement
in 1946.
The continued existence and development of ' the Kruger
National Park is largely due to his dedication and Sound administration.
When Stevenson-Hamilton settled on the banks of the Sabie River, the balance of nature was seriously impaired, especially with regard to the larger mammals, and game laws virtually existed on paper only. Giraffes, hippos, buffaloes and rhinos were extremely rare, elephants occasionally wandered in from Mozambique but did not stay at first, and other species were numerically very low.
Instructions to the new warden were very vague. The only one he remembered clearly was ’to make himself as unpopular as possible’ among hunters and poachers. He set to this task with fervor, earning himself the nickname ’Skukuza’, which means ’the man who changes everything’.
When Stevenson-Hamilton settled on the banks of the Sabie River, the balance of nature was seriously impaired, especially with regard to the larger mammals, and game laws virtually existed on paper only. Giraffes, hippos, buffaloes and rhinos were extremely rare, elephants occasionally wandered in from Mozambique but did not stay at first, and other species were numerically very low.
Instructions to the new warden were very vague. The only one he remembered clearly was ’to make himself as unpopular as possible’ among hunters and poachers. He set to this task with fervor, earning himself the nickname ’Skukuza’, which means ’the man who changes everything’.
In 1904 he succeeded
in getting control, and thus game protection, over approximately 10 000 km2 of
land north of the Sabie River that had belonged to land-owning and mining
companies and private individuals. To centralize control of the area under his
jurisdiction, he became Native Commissioner, Customs Official and Justice of
the Peace for the territory, appointing rangers to assist him in his task.
In 1922, in the aftermath of
the First World War, a demand for more agricultural land to be made available
by the government and for industries to be developed, coupled to the largely
unsympathetic attitude of most Lowvelders of the time, seriously jeopardised
the continued existence of the Sabi Game Reserve. By this time
Stevenson-Hamilton had come to the conclusion that the reserve should become a
national park under central government control if its future-was to be
safeguarded. Fortunately he had influential friends, not least of all Senator
Deneys Reitz. After a change of government, which for a time seemed to nullify
all his efforts, he finally Won the confidence and support of the new Minister
of Lands, P. J. Grobler, a great-nephew of President Kruger.
His efforts were crowned with success when, on 31 May 1926, the National Parks Act was adopted unanimously, adding many hectares of land north of the Sabie River to the old Sabi Game Reserve.
The Reserve was renamed the Kruger National Park, in honor of President S. J. P. Kruger, who had done so much for wildlife conservation in South Africa. Thus the Kruger National Park became the first national park in South Africa’s system of national parks.
His efforts were crowned with success when, on 31 May 1926, the National Parks Act was adopted unanimously, adding many hectares of land north of the Sabie River to the old Sabi Game Reserve.
The Reserve was renamed the Kruger National Park, in honor of President S. J. P. Kruger, who had done so much for wildlife conservation in South Africa. Thus the Kruger National Park became the first national park in South Africa’s system of national parks.
This Information Is Sponsored by Kurt Safari
To visit the park and experience the Kruger National Park book your Safari with Kurt Safari.
To visit the park and experience the Kruger National Park book your Safari with Kurt Safari.
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