Gaise Valley forest in peril

The third largest and the only ‘virgin’ forest of Gilgit-Baltistan is under immense threat of being wiped out.

GILGIT: The Gaise Valley forest, the third largest and the only ‘virgin’ forest of Gilgit-Baltistan (G-B), is under immense threat of being wiped out in the near future if concrete steps are not taken immediately to preserve it, experts and residents of Gaise said on Sunday.

Gaise, a valley of district Diamer, is one of the worst-hit villages of the recent floods that have killed over 182 people in G-B. The valley alone suffered 52 casualties on August 11 when lightning struck at least 30 different places of the area. Floods and landslides that followed washed away everything, including standing crops, tress, and livestock.

“People have almost lost everything to the floods and have no option now but to rely on the forest and the wildlife for their sustenance,” said Mohammad Jameel, a resident of Gaise valley who is also the chairman of Wildlife Conservation and Social Development Organisation (WCSDO) – a body set up to protect the endangered wildlife and forests of the valley.

He said that after the devastating floods residents of Upper and Lower Gaise will have to wait for at least one more year to reclaim their land.

Dr Mayoor Khan, a natural scientist and head of an NGO – Wildlife Conservation Society [WCS] – told The Express Tribune that the Gaise forest are the only virgin forests of G-B because it is intact in its original form for the past many centuries. Forests on a vast land in the same district have been faced with illegal chopping by ‘a mafia’ for the last one decade at least, he added.

He said that local residents have worked hard to safeguard wildlife and the forest, but he added that necessary support on the part of the government was a must to save the forests.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2010.