Lakki Marwat man strives to turn desert green

Munir has planted 21,000 saplings in two years in K-P’s southern district

PESHAWAR:

A young environment enthusiast from Lakki Marwat, southern district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P), has made a remarkable achievement of planting 21,000 plants in two years to improve green cover in his rain-fed native district.

Lakki Marwat is largely made up of semi desert due to its sand dunes, scorching heat and dry weather. Some parts of the district have mountains while there is a small canals-irrigated area too.

“During the last two years, I have planted more than 20,000 trees with the objective of improving green cover in my home town,” claims ambitious Munir Khan, resident of Muslim Bagh, Serai Naurang.

Talking to APP, Munir Khan said Lakki Marwat is a dry, sandy area and I wanted to reduce some impact of climate change by mobalising local community. Munir informed that he first took this initiative by his own from union council level and started planting saplings in the area. With the passage of time, the scope of plantation increased to Tehsil Sarai Naurang as a number of people and even organizations started supporting him, he noted.

Now he wants to expand plantation to the entire district by including areas like Jangkhel, Lakki University site and Pezu.

“In the early stage, people used to pass sarcastic remarks over my passion by saying that I have no work to do that is why I was wasting time in plantation. Some locals suggested me to do some proper work and termed plantation waste of time and resources,” Munir recalled.

However, such taunts and sardonic smiles did not deter my enthusiasm and I continued to work with full devotion and dedication, Munir continued.

The hard work and resultant change in the landscape of area, changed minds of people who are now supporting me, he remarked.

Apart from local people, some NGOs have also acknowledged my hard work and are approaching me with offers of providing sampling and support for planting more trees in the area.

Munir gave the title of ‘Sar Sabz-o-Shadab Lakki Marwat’ (Greener Lakki Marwat) to his plantation drive and has set the goal of planting around 200,000 trees in his area. “I have made a pledge with soil of my native area that I will plant around 200,000 trees here and for this purpose I am working hard,” he added.

Similarly, Munir said he is also concentrating on environment education, awareness and training to apprise people about importance of increasing green cover in the area and country.

He visits schools in Lakki Marwat and gives lectures to students, holds meetings with locals at community level to convince them for growing more and more trees on their lands.

Munir informed that some of the plants, he planted with the assistance of WWF and Forest Department a couple of years ago had now grown up into trees and also giving fruits besides improving environment of the area.

In reply to a question, he said he plants only those saplings which are suitable for environment of the area and are locally grown easily.

Munir said growing plants especially in semi-arid area of Lakki Marwat is not an easy task and he has to work hard and fully concentrate on his work.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 9^th, 2022.