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

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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
SDPISustainable Development Policy Instituteair pollution. It is said that 60 percent of Pakistanichildren fall ill due to water pollution.At present there are about 400 glaciers in Chitral whichprovide clean water to 500 villages of Chitral fordrinking, agriculture and farming. The glaciers inChitral are located at the altitude of 15,000 to 20,000feet. Due to rise in temperature the glaciers areundergoing rapid changes. Due to quick melting ofsnow deep ponds have been formed at the base ofmany of the glaciers. Scientists are of the view that ifmelting continues at the current rate the ponds willspill any time. This might lead to destruction of manyvillages. A few years ago a village called Sanogharwas hit by severe flood due to spilling over of a lake.Large boulders came down towards the village and alarge part of the village was destroyed. Because of bigboulders the land of the village was no morecultivable. More incidents of this kind may occur iftemperature continues to rise due to air pollution. Outof season snowfall has been observed these days. Thisdamages crops.A few years ago heavy snowfall occurred inthe month of October which destroyed fruitand trees and the paddy crop. Peoplesuffered from flu due to sudden decrease intemperature. About 40 percent of Chitral isfacing acute drought due to low rainfall.There is a shortage of water for drinking and foragriculture.Due to air pollution and increase in temperature fruit,vegetables and flowers have been adversely affected.Apricot and apples rot on the trees. Various prettyflowers do not grow. Polluted water from fields andorchards flows into canals. There is no propersewerage system in villages.In Chitral water from glacier is very clean and is goodfor drinking. We should try to save water and air frompollution. Cutting of trees should be banned and newtrees should be planted so that Chitral could be savedfrom environmental disaster.Swat: do not cut more treesDaily Azadi, Swat, May 08, 2010Editorial: Many trees have been cut down in Kabal, Matta and other areas due to securityreasons. Orchards and fields along roadsides are also being destroyed. This has caused concernamong the people. It is said that the security forces have now decided to cut down more trees inthese areas so that the militants cannot carry out their activities from behind these trees. Militaryauthorities might be aware of the pros and cons of this decision but the beauty of Swat valley isdependent on its river and its lush green trees. It is because of these trees that Swat has such apleasant climate. During the recent militancy in Swat forests have been completely cut down. Ifthe remaining trees are cut in the name of security it will not only have an adverse effect on theweather and climate of Swat but will destroy the beauty of the valley. Trees are part of naturalbeauty. Some people consider cutting of trees a murder. We hope that the military authoritieswill pay attention to this and more trees will not be cut down.Mountains, Forests Glaciers and Rivers are valuableassets of the province: Wajid Ali KhanAll citizens should be motivated to stop illegal cutting of treesDaily Aaj, Abbottabad, June 06, 2010Peshawar (Aaj News) Provincialminister for environment WajidAli Khan has said that mountains,forests, rivers and glaciers arevaluable assets of the province.Life of all the countrymen isdependent on these naturalresources. Other provinces shouldalso invest here and help us inconserving these resources. Heexpressed these views in hisaddress as the chief guest at afunction organized to celebrateinternational environment day. Hesaid that the present governmenthas taken several measures forprotection of the environment.These include establishment ofoffices in three cities and settingup of environmental tribunal inAbbottabad. He said that climaticPakistan Forest Digest Vol. 1, No. 1, April – June, 2010
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