Cutting trees

Karachi has lost much of its greenery & the small green spaces that are available here and there should be preserved.

When it comes to saving the environment or adopting environmentally-friendly policies, Pakistan has fallen quite behind. With the focus of the government geared towards its own survival, militancy and unreliable neighbours, protecting the environment comes last on the country’s to-do list.

Pakistan may not be proactive in going green, but recent events reflect that it is actively harming the environment. The large number of marchers in Islamabad have destroyed its green belts and cut down many trees to make way for containers. In Lahore, the government lost a long battle with the civil society after it had planned to chop down the trees lining Canal Road as part of its road-widening project.

In Karachi also, the city administration cut down trees lining pavements to make space for billboards. In fact, the chopping of trees along Sharae Faisal had reached such an unprecedented number that the Sindh High Court had to issue a stay order to stop all stakeholders from cutting trees along the main thoroughfare.

In a recent example of such environmental brutality, the city managers are planning to chop down more than 1,400 trees planted on a three-acre piece of land right across Dolmen City in Clifton. According to news reports, a group of advertisers are trying to put pressure on the authorities to clear this forest-type area to make space for billboards and hoardings. Given the roaring business that the city’s largest mall does, this forest is an ideal spot to place billboards as far as the advertisers are concerned.

The trees on this were steadily being removed by restaurants in the vicinity to make space for their tables and the authorities should have taken action earlier. But there is still time to save the remaining trees. The authorities should not bend under pressure, even if there are political agents involved, and make sure this piece of land retains its green cover. Karachi has lost much of its greenery over time and the small green spaces that are available here and there should be preserved. If not, the residents will be forced to live in a harmful environment and will face health issues in the long term.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 30^th, 2014.

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