Over 1m saplings to be planted in Pindi

Rawalpindi Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) is set to plant one million saplings in the current Monsoon plantation drive.

According to PHA Director General (DG) Ahmed Hassan Ranjha, the tree plantation campaign ‘Plant for Pakistan’ was kicked off by planting over 200,000 saplings at ‘Takhtpari’ to restore the historic forest. The DG said that PHA Rawalpindi started the plantation campaign in collaboration with the Punjab Forest Department. PHA was striving to make Rawalpindi city clean and green.

Despite financial constraints, PHA was working hard to make the city green, he added. He said that the authority had set up a grand nursery to provide different plants to the citizens at affordable rates and generate more revenue for the department.

The grand nursery was set up on 1,000 kanals in Gorakhpur Town to promote plantation and contain the consequences of global climate change. Punjab government had provided the land for nurseries to promote plantation in the country, he said.

The DG said that Gorakhpur Nursery would prove to be very important in the ongoing initiatives of the Punjab government regarding Green Pakistan from where large-scale planting of trees would be done.

The plants and saplings would be supplied in the coming months from the Gorakhpur Nursery as a variety of plants and grasses were produced there.

He said that less than five percent of Pakistan’s total land area consists of forests, which is a matter of concern and the growth of forests in Pakistan could be ensured only by measures like continuous plantation.

He added that over 200,000 saplings were planted at ‘Takhtpari’ to restore the historic forest.