The green drive: Planted, not nurtured
Data provided by the Rawalpindi Forest Department reveals that there are 26 nurseries throughout Rawalpindi division.
RAWALPINDI/ISLAMABAD:
Pakistan is a forest-deficient country and only 5.2 per cent of the area is covered with forests. Although millions of saplings have been planted in the twin cities this year, the country is still far from achieving an optimal percentage of its land covered by forests.
Every year, politicians inaugurate plantation drives but fail to even look after the plant that is planted by them.
For a teacher at the Arid Agriculture University’s Department of Environmental Science, plantation is not about planting a sapling. “The sapling needs care which can be provided with water and fertilisers.”
The data provided by the Rawalpindi Forest Department reveals that there are 26 nurseries throughout Rawalpindi division. During spring season, 80,000 saplings have been planted on government owned land. “Every year, 20 per cent of saplings planted by farmers die whereas 50 per cent of the saplings planted on government land die,” shared an official. He pointed out that this is because of lack of attention.
Rawalpindi division comprises of 552,000 acres of land. “Except Kotli Sattian and Murree, the areas are barren or are shrub forests,” said Muhammad Azam, an official at a nursery in Rawat, adding that Kotli Sattian and Murree consist of thick forests, with over 45,000 pine trees.
The understaffed and resource-deficient forest department complained they need a budget from which they could grow 2.2 million plants. “We ended up getting a budget from which we can only grow 0.4 million plants.”
Officials at the department say they have 1.5 million saplings in stock which will be planted to achieve the target. But next year, the target will be impossible to achieve.
The department has an insufficient budget of Rs160 million for 2014. “A sapling must be two feet in size but due to shortage of funds needed to properly maintain it, we grow plants less than one foot tall.”
Rawalpindi Forest Circle Conservator Iftikhar Ahmed Qureshi said more plants are used than grown. “The consumption rate is much higher than plantation,” he said, adding, “Last winter, we supplied 60,000 maunds of firewood to 11 union councils of Murree,” he said.
If we cut one tree, we should grow at least 10. Only then we will be able to achieve the target of 25 per cent, said Qureshi.
Need for a greener capital
Numerous trees have and will further become victims of the Rawalpindi Islamabad Metro Bus Project. According to the Capital Development Authority (CDA), over 1,000 trees were to be chopped to facilitate the transport project which is under-construction. Although an enormous loss, the city administration argues that Islamabad’s civic agency will recover the loss as tree plantation campaigns are conducted twice a year.
CDA claims it plants a million saplings of various species every year. These saplings are planted in the Margalla Hills National Park, urban areas, and the catchment area of Simly Dam.
Although massive plantation drives have been ongoing for years, Islamabad seems to be losing its greenery rapidly.
Officials of CDA’s environment wing shared that nurseries in Chak Shehzad, Dera Jungla and Simly Dam are major sources of sapling production. They also purchase saplings from a nursery owned by the Pakistan Tobacco Company.
In order to purchase healthy plants, CDA hires contractors who deal in ornamental plants and buys them from private nurseries.
The nursery in Chak Shehzad has a production capacity of around 0.6 million saplings per year but currently, performance has gone down with a production rate of 0.2 million saplings per annum. The production rate of Dera Jungla, or Trail- 5, in the Margalla Hills National Park is relatively better with a rate of 0.35 million saplings per year. The Simly Dam nursery generates 0.1 million saplings.
The saplings include plants like Bougainvillea, Chir Pine, Amaltas, Ajar, Silver Oaks, Celtis, Kikar, Kachnar and many others.
A case of negligence
In 2010, CDA hired a private firm ‘M/s Tauheed Constructions’ to plant and raise around 0.5 million saplings on the Islamabad Highway. It was agreed at Rs17 million and included cost of saplings, care for a period of three years and fencing.
In 2012, when as per agreement there would have been some 50,000 two-year-old plants, the authority, following an inquiry, found some 0.35 million plants missing. The area was not fenced while some 1,400 supporting pools for saplings were not in place.
“The contractor admitted his mistake and pledged to plant the remaining 0.35 million plants, but it never happened,” said an official who was part of the team that probed the matter.
In 2013, CDA managed to release the outstanding amount of Rs5.5 million to the contractor and in February 2014, the security amount was also released to the firm in connivance with CDA officials. The file of the case is missing from CDA record while the saplings are not planted in numbers which claimed by the authority, said an official of the environment wing.
Moreover, plantations are selectively carried out in urban areas which are frequently visited by tourists and people of importance, to give an impression that the drive is in full swing.
Once plantation is complete, the next stage is the protection and care of saplings. “It is non-existent because we lack resources,” said an official of the environment wing who requested anonymity. A sapling requires two to three years of intense care to grow to a sufficient level.
CDA maintains no record of its plantation drives. “One cannot check the number of saplings planted during one season and the rate of survival thereafter,” the official said.
Till the time the city administration in particular and the government in general takes the issue seriously, funds will continue to be poured in to plantation drives with no greenery in sight.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2014.
Pakistan is a forest-deficient country and only 5.2 per cent of the area is covered with forests. Although millions of saplings have been planted in the twin cities this year, the country is still far from achieving an optimal percentage of its land covered by forests.
Every year, politicians inaugurate plantation drives but fail to even look after the plant that is planted by them.
For a teacher at the Arid Agriculture University’s Department of Environmental Science, plantation is not about planting a sapling. “The sapling needs care which can be provided with water and fertilisers.”
The data provided by the Rawalpindi Forest Department reveals that there are 26 nurseries throughout Rawalpindi division. During spring season, 80,000 saplings have been planted on government owned land. “Every year, 20 per cent of saplings planted by farmers die whereas 50 per cent of the saplings planted on government land die,” shared an official. He pointed out that this is because of lack of attention.
Rawalpindi division comprises of 552,000 acres of land. “Except Kotli Sattian and Murree, the areas are barren or are shrub forests,” said Muhammad Azam, an official at a nursery in Rawat, adding that Kotli Sattian and Murree consist of thick forests, with over 45,000 pine trees.
The understaffed and resource-deficient forest department complained they need a budget from which they could grow 2.2 million plants. “We ended up getting a budget from which we can only grow 0.4 million plants.”
Officials at the department say they have 1.5 million saplings in stock which will be planted to achieve the target. But next year, the target will be impossible to achieve.
The department has an insufficient budget of Rs160 million for 2014. “A sapling must be two feet in size but due to shortage of funds needed to properly maintain it, we grow plants less than one foot tall.”
Rawalpindi Forest Circle Conservator Iftikhar Ahmed Qureshi said more plants are used than grown. “The consumption rate is much higher than plantation,” he said, adding, “Last winter, we supplied 60,000 maunds of firewood to 11 union councils of Murree,” he said.
If we cut one tree, we should grow at least 10. Only then we will be able to achieve the target of 25 per cent, said Qureshi.
Need for a greener capital
Numerous trees have and will further become victims of the Rawalpindi Islamabad Metro Bus Project. According to the Capital Development Authority (CDA), over 1,000 trees were to be chopped to facilitate the transport project which is under-construction. Although an enormous loss, the city administration argues that Islamabad’s civic agency will recover the loss as tree plantation campaigns are conducted twice a year.
CDA claims it plants a million saplings of various species every year. These saplings are planted in the Margalla Hills National Park, urban areas, and the catchment area of Simly Dam.
Although massive plantation drives have been ongoing for years, Islamabad seems to be losing its greenery rapidly.
Officials of CDA’s environment wing shared that nurseries in Chak Shehzad, Dera Jungla and Simly Dam are major sources of sapling production. They also purchase saplings from a nursery owned by the Pakistan Tobacco Company.
In order to purchase healthy plants, CDA hires contractors who deal in ornamental plants and buys them from private nurseries.
The nursery in Chak Shehzad has a production capacity of around 0.6 million saplings per year but currently, performance has gone down with a production rate of 0.2 million saplings per annum. The production rate of Dera Jungla, or Trail- 5, in the Margalla Hills National Park is relatively better with a rate of 0.35 million saplings per year. The Simly Dam nursery generates 0.1 million saplings.
The saplings include plants like Bougainvillea, Chir Pine, Amaltas, Ajar, Silver Oaks, Celtis, Kikar, Kachnar and many others.
A case of negligence
In 2010, CDA hired a private firm ‘M/s Tauheed Constructions’ to plant and raise around 0.5 million saplings on the Islamabad Highway. It was agreed at Rs17 million and included cost of saplings, care for a period of three years and fencing.
In 2012, when as per agreement there would have been some 50,000 two-year-old plants, the authority, following an inquiry, found some 0.35 million plants missing. The area was not fenced while some 1,400 supporting pools for saplings were not in place.
“The contractor admitted his mistake and pledged to plant the remaining 0.35 million plants, but it never happened,” said an official who was part of the team that probed the matter.
In 2013, CDA managed to release the outstanding amount of Rs5.5 million to the contractor and in February 2014, the security amount was also released to the firm in connivance with CDA officials. The file of the case is missing from CDA record while the saplings are not planted in numbers which claimed by the authority, said an official of the environment wing.
Moreover, plantations are selectively carried out in urban areas which are frequently visited by tourists and people of importance, to give an impression that the drive is in full swing.
Once plantation is complete, the next stage is the protection and care of saplings. “It is non-existent because we lack resources,” said an official of the environment wing who requested anonymity. A sapling requires two to three years of intense care to grow to a sufficient level.
CDA maintains no record of its plantation drives. “One cannot check the number of saplings planted during one season and the rate of survival thereafter,” the official said.
Till the time the city administration in particular and the government in general takes the issue seriously, funds will continue to be poured in to plantation drives with no greenery in sight.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 7th, 2014.