ICT to plant over two million saplings during spring season

ADC says plants were adaptive to climate change in potohar region

ISLAMABAD: More than two million saplings are expected to be planted in the federal capital by the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) administration under the Prime Minister’s Clean Green Pakistan initiative during the upcoming spring season.

In this regard, the Islamabad Additional Deputy Commissioner (ADC) has said that the administration has planted a million saplings last year. He further said that the ICT administration has now chalked out a strategy to enhance the federal capital’s green cover as per the premier's vision of a green Pakistan.

“ICT administration has developed a plan for 2020 in which the plantation target will be augmented to two million saplings,” the ADC stated, adding that plants which grow rapidly and create a positive impact on the environment will be preferred.

To a question, he said the horticulture teams have been formed which would look after the planted saplings across the metropolis.

“Under Plan 2020, we have started work in different sectors including G-12, G-13, G-14 and Kashmir Highway. The drive will also be carried out from Kashmir Highway to Zero Point.”, the official said.

ADC added that they have a sufficient quantity of saplings and do not rely on nurseries of Islamabad Metropolitan Corporation (IMC).

Speaking about types of plants that are used in the campaign, he said that the administration planted saplings of different trees Pine, Fig trees, Silver Oak, Chinar tree, Bottle Brush, and ornamental shrubs that were easily adaptive to the climate and environmental conditions in the Potohar region.

ADC said that they had held separate meetings with the community organizations, cooperative housing societies, and educational institutions to devise a plan to manage the plantation carried out under their respective domains.

Further, he said some 5,000 saplings would be planted with the help of private bodies on the land retrieved from illegal marquees and other buildings.

Last year’s plantation drive

Talking about the role of ICT administration in last year’s campaign, the official said that they played a cooperative and supportive role for a greener Islamabad and carried out massive plantation drives deeming, it to be a philanthropist and social responsibility driven initiative. He added that it was completed with public support.

“Around 16 registered cooperative housing societies, the Islamabad Chambers of Commerce and Industry (ICCI), educational institutions participated in past plantation campaigns,” the ADC said, adding that no public money has been spent in any of these drives.

The saplings were planted under the ‘plant and own a tree’ vision, adding that the public is now looking after these plants themselves.

Further, on the part of private housing schemes, the official said that different cooperative housing societies have collectively planted around 0.6 million saplings in collaboration with the ICT administration in 2019.

Besides this, the ADC said that in a joint partnership with the National University of Science of Technology (NUST), the ICT administration planted 100,000 saplings together. The official claimed that as many as 0.4 million saplings were planted along the new Airport Road to Kashmir Highway with the assistance of students and staff members of Islamic International University Islamabad (IIUI).

He said that for fetching results of the plantation drive conducted in the last year, a third-party evaluation had been conducted after six months of the drive. ADC claimed that the evaluation report showed the survival rate of planted saplings to be up to 80 per cent.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 17^th, 2020.