Stopping the wildfires

Given that forest fires are common enough in the summer, the spectre of foul play in the Margalla Hill blazes ought to have been dismissed outright. But since there has been consistent escalation in the outbreak of fires over the past several weeks, officials are finding it increasingly difficult to rule out the possibility altogether. The 12,605-hectare Margalla Hills National Park is no stranger to fire, witnessing at least several blazes every year. However, the difference between now and the past is that the fires are far bigger, deadlier and more frequent than before. In May 2018 alone there were a dozen such fires reported. The impact has been both dire and immediate. Trees and plants are burned to the ground and those that survive are badly damaged. Air pollution increases in the capital as a result and all this contributes to the extreme temperatures in the federal capital.

We must concede the fact that there is no single effective way to stop wildfires from growing in Margalla and elsewhere. Yet the previous strategy of hiring and deploying 400 or so volunteers to tend to the Margalla forests in the summer and fight wildfires seemed to work as opposed to the costlier option of hiring helicopters to extinguish the fires. A row between the Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad and the Islamabad Wildlife Board however has prevented the deployment of 400 volunteers this year.

There are also suspicions that the Margalla fires are unnatural and linked to the turf war between the MCI and the wildlife board. Whatever the truth, it is time the authorities got to the bottom of this affair and determined who is at fault. The federal government should not waste another day and conduct a thorough investigation into the rapid destruction of the forest.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2018.

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