April - June, 2010 - Sustainable Development Policy Institute

SDPISustainable Development Policy Instituteretrieval of over 2,700 kanals offorest land from the encroachers.Out of the retrieved land, about2,300 kanals was under the allegedoccupation of Bahria Town.Conservator Forest DepartmentRawalpindi Dr Rafiq confirmedthat 61 kanals of land was stillunder the illegal occupation ofBahria Town on which it hadcarried out development work forits Safari Bungalows at Golf Cityadjacent to Murree Expressway.He said two cases had alreadybeen registered with the Murreepolice against the administrationof the housing society forencroaching on the 61 kanals offorest land.He said the boundary pillars of theforest department were relocatedwhich, according to him, had beenremoved by the encroachers inconnivance with some forestdepartment officials.Similarly, 373 kanals of‘developed’ land has been markedas encroached by Oil & GasDevelopment Corporation(OGDC) Housing Scheme, theofficial added.The locals said about 800 kanalsforest land was still underencroachment of OGDC Town.According to the revenuedepartment record, the total land inKhasra No 181 is 960 kanals outof which 550 kanals waspurchased by Judicial Town in1986. But about 1,100 kanals fromthe same Khasra has been‘purchased’ by OGDC from thelocal land mafia while 1,200kanals is under the occupation ofthe locals. The official said how itcould be possible withoutencroachment on the land.According to the divisional forestofficer Murree, the recordsubmitted to the High Court by theOGDC administrationhad been proved fake asno such transfers wereregistered with therevenue department. Hesaid according to theofficial record, the totalland in Khasra No 181 was 960kanals against 3,400 kanals that isunder illegal occupation.The ongoing demarcation has alsodetected 75 kanals as encroachedby Sanam Garden HousingScheme on Rawalpindi-Murree-Kashmir Road (RMK) nearChattar.According to the DFO, about 20kanals land has been shown asencroached by influential people atNeer Goli village on Burbhanroad.He vowed to continue the driveand vacate all the land encroachedupon by the land mafia.Deforestation expandsDawn Islamabad, June 14, 2010By Zain DaudpotoUNDER the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), Pakistan had agreed to raise forest cover toseven per cent of total land by 2015 from current lessthan four per cent.But forests are depleting and their quality is alsodeteriorating. Among all types, the riverine forestsare the hardest-hit in Sindh.Agro Forest Policy 2004, implemented in 2005,proved counterproductive. Trees were cut down andthe land was leased for agriculture purpose to theinfluential people. This policy was intended toimprove forest cover on vanished forest land throughan incentive, allowing cultivation of 75 per cent ofagriculture crop area while planting trees onremaining 25 per cent area. In absence of an effectivemonitoring system, the “reforestation policy” proved“deforestation policy”.Just after policy notification in 2005, influentiallandlords started cutting the forests. Afterdeforestation, the forest department declared the landas “vanished land” and recommended to the chiefminister to include it in lease schedule. The land wasleased to the applicants for five years.Under the agro forestry policy, the maximum leasearea eligible for a single applicant was 40 acres, butafter signing on lease agreement, the lesseedeforested several times more area in adjacent forestor in the vicinity of his lease area. In some cases, thefarmers grabbed whole forest area. The agro forestrypolicy did not only destroy the forest cover but badlyaffected the ecosystem, environment and livelihoodof people in Riverine area of Sindh.Riverine area of Sindh was producing milk, meat,fish, local honey, herbals and other food items, butnow many people lost their livelihood.Lessees and land grabbers destroyed natural waternetwork which recharges thousands of natural smalllakes even in low flooding water in Riverine areas,which was the livelihood of local fish catchers.Pakistan Forest Digest Vol. 1, No. 1, April – June, 2010