Urban forestry: ‘Diversified species should be planted in Karachi’

Dr Zafar Iqbal Shams' lecture warns of the problems with monoculture plantation

KARACHI: In an urban city like Karachi, it is advisable to plant diversified species of plants, said Dr Zafar Iqbal Shams, University of Karachi professor and environmentalist.

Shams delivered a lecture on urban forestry in the city at the Horticulture Society of Pakistan. Monoculture plantation is an activity that can prove to be very dangerous, he said. Diversity among plant species is important to ensure that plants are able to resist climatic changes and diseases, he explained. "A single disease can target the entire species of a tree, resulting in the loss of complete belts."



He mentioned his collaboration with the Karachi Mass Transit Project in which the 5.2 kilometre corridor, from Mereweather Clock Tower to Sohrab Goth, was laid with plantations. "Twenty years later in 2013, I revisited the area," he said. "I discovered that not many plants existed along the corridor."

"In 1993, the total number of species along this corridor was 67," he said. "As opposed to this, the specie number decreased to 53, of which a large percentage was Cronocarpus erectus." The identified species is a shrub and not a tree, he added. Shams said that 20-year gap revealed that the percentage of shrubs has increased in comparison to that of trees.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 31st, 2015.