500 families affected in Shirani blaze

QUETTA:

Around 500 families have been affected by the forest fire in Shirani district which engulfed an area of 30 square kilometer.

“Our lives were linked with these ancient pine and olive trees. We depended on them for a living,” Allauddin Sherani, a resident of the Sherani district of Balochistan told The Express Tribune.

“Last year I earned more than Rs1.1 million by selling pine nuts,” Allaudin said.

Sherani is a small mountainous district of Balochistan located in the Koh-e-Suliman range. The district is named after the Shirani Pashtun tribe inhibiting these difficult mountains for generations.

Allauddin Sherani is just one of the farmers whose trees of edible pine were completely gutted in the wildfire which has now been brought under control. Around 500 families have been affected by the fire the Deputy Commissioner Sherani Muhammad Ejaz Jaffar told The Express Tribune.

He said that pine nuts are the main produce of the district and last year a harvest of 4,000 metric ton was officially recorded.

Shirani, along with the South Waziristan and Musakhail, is the main producer of pine nuts in K-P and Balochistan. A blaze suddenly erupted in the pine forests on May 18 and spread quickly due to lack of timely and coordinated response, inflicting widespread damage.

The federal and provincial governments have already ordered inquiries into the fire.

“We have also ordered a complete survey of the forest to assess the scale of damage,” Commissioner Zhob Division, Bashir Khan Bazai said.

He said the district administration has provided 100 tents to the displaced families in the camp. “We have arranged tents but these people are used to their traditional mud houses so they moved back. They can’t be separated from mountains,” he said.

Salmeen Khapalwak, the founder of Ashar Movement maintained that the wildfire deprived many families of their bread and butter.

“We demand an impartial inquiry in the incident,” he said. He also criticized the local forest guards and officers and civil administration for their delayed response.

Local residents have demanded reforestation in the affected area.

“We demand reforestation to restore our main source of income,” Ali Khan, another Shirani tribesman said.

He said it was the responsibility of the government to take effective measures to rehabilitate the people and restore their income.

The Federal Minister for Housing Maulana Abdul Wasey, who was also appointed as the Prime Minister’s Special Assistant on the forest fire, said the government was considering forming a panel of environmentalists on the national level to review the regrowth of the forest.

“We are seriously considering reforestation,” Maulana shared. Commissioner Zhob said that a 30 square kilometer area has been affected and a survey team comprising officials from the forest and wildlife departments and civil administration would conduct a survey to assess the damages.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 30^th, 2022.