Tall claims: Trees sowed on paper, not in soil

Tribesmen say no saplings were planted in North Waziristan in the past three years.

MIRANSHAH:

“Trees are ornaments of the earth and we should grow more to save the environment and make our area beautiful,” claimed North Waziristan’s political agent during the inauguration of a plantation campaign last year but the situation on ground is different in the agency.

Siraj Ahmad Khan had said the forest department would plant more than one million saplings and would preserve the forests in Razmak subdivision. He had also announced cash prizes for the work done by the forest department in remote areas.

However, not a single sapling was sowed in the agency since the only one Araucaria tree planted in Al Azhar Public School in 2011 by Assistant Political Agent Tasleem Khan.



Addressing journalists at the Miranshah Press Club on February 17, forest officers Ajab Khan and Amjid Ali claimed the forest department’s goal for 2012-13 would be achieved by planting 1.135 million saplings in the agency, adding that 0.5 million saplings had already been planted in Razmak, Mir Ali and Miranshah subdivisions while the remaining 0.635 million would be planted in the incoming spring season in 2013.

Amjad Ali maintained Bakain (Melia Azadirachta), Eucalyptus, Pine, Poplar and fruit trees had been planted, but failed to mention the amount invested in buying and planting over half a million saplings. He also claimed 2,450 acres of land had been allocated for saplings in the agency, but did not divulge the designated land’s location.

An elder from Razmak, Sharabat Khan said not a single sapling had been planted in the subdivision in the last three years. “I can vow that no one from the forest department has visited Razmak in the last three years.”

Similarly, Esa Khan, a tribal elder from Dossali tehsil also claimed no saplings were planted in his tehsil.

Malik Ajab Khan from Datta Khel and Sherin Jan from Miranshah said former K-P governor Ali Ahmad Jan Orakzai had decided to plant olive orchards in different tehsils of the agency. However, the project was abandoned due to increasing threats of terrorism in the area.

Rejecting the claims of forest officials, tribesmen said no awareness campaign was launched to motivate farmers to initiate the plantation process, adding that all plantations were sowed on paper instead of soil.

When contacted, North Waziristan’s political administration maintained the forest department was responsible for plantations.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 21^st, 2013.