Timber mafia unfazed by billion-tree Tsunami in K-P

Locals have risen up to stop influential mafia, authorities say

PESHAWAR: Despite the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) claiming to have planted one billion trees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), the timber mafia is felling trees rampantly in the province.

Trees had been planted in infertile areas around the provincial capital Peshawar like Mattani, Garhi Chandan and Azakhel.

However, the timber mafia is still at large with locals now rising up to stop them.

Garhi Chandan, a previously barren terrain, which borders the tribal areas of Frontier Region Peshawar, was once a bastion of miscreants and had been declared a red zone.

Criminal and terror activities had become a routine affair and the administration had almost lost control of the area where politicians would not visit even for election campaigns.



But Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan made the trip to inaugurate the tree plantation campaign.

Only a year later the timber mafia was operating in the area with impunity, using the latest machinery to dump the trees in vehicles and ferrying the load to market to be sold.

Locals informed the authorities of the mafia's operations, with certain influential persons also involved in the tree felling in Chandan Garhi.
The area was barren but after the tree plantation campaign it has been transformed with greenery.

"We’ve told the police about their activities [timber mafia], but we are helpless in the face of these influential persons," a local resident told The Express Tribune.

Police however said those felling the trees were actually the owners of the land and it is not government property.

Station House Officer Mattani Ibrahim Khan explained that those who were responsible for tree-felling were summoned to the police station to probe the matter and that police will submit a report in this regard soon.

According to a report by International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), more than 13,000 private tree nurseries were established under the Billion Tree Tsunami project across K-P which boosted local income, generated thousands of green jobs and empowered unemployed youth as well as women.