Kampala  - Leaders of a Ugandan district along the crocodile- infested shores of Lake Victoria have ordered the cull of all the area's reptiles, after 20 people were killed in 2008 and another seven killed since the beginning of 2009, government-sponsored radio said Sunday.

The radio Bukedde FM quoted Mayuge district officials as saying that they have ordered people to hunt down the crocodiles and kill them because the state-owned conservation body the Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) "has not heeded the peoples outcry."

UWE officials however blame the crocodile-human confrontations in the district on dwindling lake resources and are advising villagers to support a government programme to put the reptiles on farms.

UWA Executive Director Moses Mapesa told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa sunday that due to the dwindling number of the fish in Lake victoria, there is a stiff competition between humans and the reptiles.

"I can understand the anguish of people when the crocodiles kill or injure them but life on earth has to be shared between all organisms. Crocodiles never get out to hunt for man but man goes into the lake to get fish and he conflicts with those reptiles," Mapesa said. Mapesa added that UWA officials have been advising people on safety around the lake and have provided guidelines on setting up crocodile farms as a source of income, Mapesa said. dpa