The trees, which bloom in different colours during different seasons in Islamabad, are continuously dying at an alarming rate because of the negligence of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) or being axed for the sake of road construction and execution of other development projects. The federal city has remained famous for its natural beauty.
It had surroundings with a natural look, beautiful trees and beds of wild flowers but it is fast losing the precious greenery, which is product of ill-planned development and poor management. No wonder, the number of dead trees is increasing with each passing day as a result of the slackness on the part of the CDA’s environment wing. The unfortunate trend is resulting in rapid shrinking of most of the greenbelts with adverse effects on environment, as the population of the city is increasing while noise, dust, smoke and all the other kinds of pollution is increasing.
The greenbelt located in F series has the largest number of dead trees. Greenery, once a hallmark of Islamabad, now only exists in the lawns of posh sectors of the capital; therefore, old trees need to be protected before they vanish for ever. Preservation of old trees is a common practice in the developed countries, but the CDA has not made any efforts to tackle the challenge. Instead, the civic body had floated a proposal to cut the dead trees but without any plan to replace them. On the other hand, thousands of trees have been chopped in the last few years but no body knows where these trees go, keeping in mind the fact that timber is a high-priced commodity.
The CDA conduct a two-day-long tree plantation campaign every year in which hundreds of thousand of saplings are planted, but surprisingly, the end result is quite opposite, as the tree cover in Islamabad is decreasing at an alarming rate. The survival rate of the saplings is also a matter of great concern because the CDA’s directorate concerned shows enthusiasm only during the campaign, but the passion subsidises with the passage of some time. There is no effective mechanism of monitoring the newly-planted trees and not enough staff to look after the saplings.
As a result, most of them die within days after their plantation.
The very landscape of the capital city is facing the imminent danger of environmental degradation in the form of deforestation. There was a time when one could see green blanket spread over a large area from Shakarparian to Damn-e-Koh and, of course, to Pir Sohawa. The people, residing in Islamabad for the last several years, have different opinions about development at the cost of deforestation. They believe that the tree cover was a landmark of Islamabad, while mega development projects can be executed anywhere else.
However, a CDA official says the authority has increased the number of new sapling from 400,000 to 500,000 during the Spring Tree Plantation Campaign – 2011. Out of the total planted saplings, more than 50 percent plants have grown thanks to strict monitoring, while further measures would be taken to improve their survival rate. But he admitted, while somehow negating his own figures, that the mortality rate of the CDA plantation was 50 per cent, but they were was trying its best to increase the ratio of survived saplings.
