Commissioner Shoaib Ahmed Siddiqui has decided to reinforce a tree-plantation campaign in the city.
This is the umpteenth time that the city administration will be launching such a drive with the help of non-governmental organisations. What is ironic is that despite such drives, the city’s tree cover seems to be constantly on the decline.
In the latest drive, the city administration plans to plant around 500,000 saplings around the city. This was revealed by the commissioner at a meeting with representatives of NGOs at the commissioner’s officer on Tuesday. The commissioner said that around 200,000 saplings had already been planted with the help of the civil society. “We are looking to plant another 300,000 saplings,” he said.
Not many are convinced of the effectiveness of these campaigns. Abid Hussain Paracha, who runs the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC) nursery at University Road, told The Express Tribune that millions of saplings have been planted across the city over the last few years but to no avail.
Each year, various NGOs and government functionaries inaugurate tree plantation drives, but fail to provide the plants with the proper care they need. “The saplings need constant care in terms of water and fertilisers,” he explained. “These people should focus on caring for the plants instead of just inaugurating drives for publicity.”
According to the former Karachi administrator, Fahim Zaman Khan, a drive around the city would reveal the thousands of trees that have been carelessly chopped down over the years. He added that the older citizens have fond memories of the banyan, gulmohar, neem, almond, jamun and palm trees that are a rarity in the city now.
“These trees had two major functions: they acted as oxygen factories and correlated with the water cycle to encourage rainfall in the city,” Khan explained.
According to the data collected by the KMC’s parks and horticulture department, the city is now left with only 82 major nurseries that are being run on raods falling under the municipality’s jurisdiction. They are located at Shaheed-e-Millat Road, Sharae Faisal, University Road Safoora Goth, Rashhid Minhas Road, Karsaz Road and Korangi road. Other cantonment boards claim there are hundreds of nurseries established within their jurisdictions. “The establishment of nurseries by the government is a good stand, but if Karachi wants to control the deterioration of its environment, it must plant more trees and stop chopping down the existing ones,” Khan stressed.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2014.
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