Monsoon drive replaces Miyawaki forests

The new initiative will focus on roadsides and hilly regions

RAWALPINDI:

The upcoming monsoon season planting campaign which will run from mid-July to mid-September seeks to replace the previous government’s Miyawaki Afforestation scheme.

Three major schemes of the successful Miyawaki afforestation techniques have been abolished as part of the new plantation project.

Just to give an overview of the older project, the first Miyawaki forest was planted by the Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) on an area of four acres on the banks of the Murree Road Rialto Chowk drain. After three and a half years, the plantation has become a large dense forest, with fruit plants bearing fruit for the second time. The Miyawaki forest plants have grown 20 to 30 feet in height, and beneath their shade, citizens are often seen sitting on benches and enjoying themselves.

However, all the lights that were installed in the Miyawaki forest are now out of order and the first-ever open-air library that was built there for young tourists at its entrance gate has also been shut down as all its books have been stolen. As part of the new scheme, the structure of the entire library has been uprooted and its signboard has also been removed.

Three new Miyawaki forests were yet to be planted in Rawalpindi, on five acres of land in Rakh Dhamial, on the vast barren and deserted land of Koral Chowk and along the Islamabad Expressway and the Jhelum Road.

D-One had already been prepared for those plantations and funds had been acquired. However, after the end of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government’s tenure, these projects were postponed indefinitely.

With the passing of the budget of the current financial year, the entire project has been completely scrapped and officials of all relevant institutions are unwilling to address any question about the Miyawaki Forest Project.

During this year's monsoon plantation, 1.2 million saplings will be planted. Trees will be planted on both sides of all roads and the maximum possible number of pine trees will be planted in the four hilly tehsils of Kallar Syedan, Kahuta, Kotli Sattian and Murree.

The seeds of trees will be embedded within seed balls made of dirt and catapulted to the mountainsides.