Title Pakistan Forest Digest Issue 01- A4 - Pakistan Research Group

SDPISustainable Development Policy InstituteChapter 05Forest&EnvironmentEnglish Translations of Urdu ClippingsDeforestation in Chitral: An environmental tsunamiDaily Mashriq Peshawar, May 03, 2010Article by Sardar Ali AmanScientists say that trees are like lungs for humanbeings. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and provideoxygen which is necessary for humans and animals.Now it is a known fact that plants are also livingbeings and like living beings they also breathe, acquirefood, grow and are affected by external factors. Thiswas first revealed in chapter Yasin in the Holy Quran.Trees affect the climate. Some trees provide food andmedicines. If trees are not there the climate will not becool. There will be nothing to clean the contaminationof carbon dioxide. We get fuel and building materialfrom trees. So tree is man’s best friend.The total area of Chitral is 14850 sq kilometers. Only1.2 percent of the area is under agricultural use. Therest is mountains. Out of this only 1.8 percent area isunder forests now. There are Chir, deodar, Partal treesgrowing in these forests. These forests are located inthe southern part of Chitral. In ancient times pineforests grew in the north of Chitral. These forests havebecome almost extinct due to reckless cutting offorests. Now pine trees can be seen only at some pointon the mountain tops.According to an estimate in 1893 twenty percent ofCitra’s area was under forests. It has decreased to 1.8percent now. The reason is reckless cutting of forests.Cutting of forests for commercial purposes began in1939. Timber was transported through Chitral River.This was a very small scale business. At that timetimber was not allowed to be extracted from Chitralforests without the permission of Mehta of Chitral.However the cutting of trees increased manifolds in1969 when Chitral was merged into KhyberPakhtunkhwa province and declared a district. Thisopened up an opportunity for the forest department.Forests were being mindlessly cut down by timbermafia with the collaboration of the forest department.Millions of sq feet timber was sold to timbercontractors. In 1984 Forest Development Corporationjoined this lucrative business. So from 1984 to 1993this “gang of three” further speeded up the cutting offorests.In 1993 under Prime Minister Moin Qureshi’sgovernment a ban was imposed on cutting of forests.But the cutting and smuggling of timber continued asusual. The remaining 1.8 per cent of forest will also belost if cutting of forest continues. It is sad that theforest department does not believe in replacing plantsand trees. Reckless cutting of trees has led to increasedpollution in Chitral. This pollution is the result ofincreasing number of vehicles, use of chemicalfertilizers and pesticides, particularly spraying of lowquality and expired pesticides, presence of heaps ofsolid waste. Climatic changes have occurred due toincreased amount of carbon dioxide, carbon monooxide, nitrogen dioxide and other poisonous gases.Chitral is now caught in a difficult climatic cycle.Temperature is increasing, snowfall takes place at oddtimes, rainfall is low so several streams have dried up.Heart diseases and cancer is becoming common due toPakistan Forest Digest Vol. 1, No. 1, April – June, 2010