Deforestation and our lack of understanding the problem
Those who do not care about their environment, they actually do not love themselves. We are one of those nations who are much lax about our environment. For that reason, we end up in deaths by frequent floods, polluted air and contaminated water. It is only the environment friendly measures which can save us from multiple kinds of natural disasters. The tree plantation is one of the best environment friendly measures. Sadly, we have been losing forest cover.
The World Bank has estimated that just 2.1 percent of Pakistan has forest cover as compared with 23 percent in neighbouring India and 33 percent in the United States. Trees are very necessary for our survival, but we are chopping them off to reduce our life. We are unaware of that fact despite being well aware of the benefits of trees. The Canadian environmentalists say that a mature tree annually meets oxygen needs of two human beings. It is very dismal that hundreds of the trees are illegally chopped off in this country daily. There are laws to punish the tree scavengers, but there is no implementation of such laws.
In Pakistan, the might is right rules. The timber mafia and other groups are busy in devastating the forest covers. They are engaged in the illegal activity without any fear because they are well aware of the fact that everything is ‘for sale’ in this country. We all see trucks loaded with the chopped trees on the roads. These trucks pass through police check posts, traffic police jurisdictions and forest officers, but ‘bought off’ officials let them go on give and take basis. This way we have moved away from a greener Pakistan to an almost barren Pakistan.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), some 43,000 hectares of forest are cleared annually in Pakistan, which is the highest deforestation rate in Asia. The entire world community is worried and shocked at the fast decreasing forest cover of Pakistan. It is the forest cover that resists floods, cleans our environment from the water and air pollution and is an antidote to global warming. The world community realises the importance of trees, but no one knows when our government and the forest department officials will wake up from their deep slumber. Last December, Pakistan had been provided $3.8 million from the Readiness Fund of the World Bank-administered Forest Carbon Partnership Facility (FCPF) to increase the forest cover in the country. Pakistan was among eight new countries selected to receive an FCPF grant after Norway pledged $100 million to the fund. The others were Bhutan, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Fiji, Dominican Republic, Nigeria and Togo.
According to the environmentalists, Pakistan needs to plant 1.5 trillion to 2 trillion trees to begin reversing the damage, saying one acre can hold up to 2,500 saplings. This is the hardest task at least for us Pakistanis who are not willing and ready to save the remaining forest cover. Officials say Pakistan is planting about 100 million saplings each year, but about half of them die within two years.
Energy crisis and poverty have increased the rate of deforestation. In the winter, when there is gas and electricity load shedding, the demand for wood increases. And the cutting of the trees and selling its wood is an easy way of earning money for the poor people. However, an illegal activity is not acceptable to justify meeting one’s needs.
Shockingly, a leading English newspaper of Pakistan reported in December 19 last year that 2,600 trees were cut by the irrigation department of Bahawalpur to pave way for a water channel required to wash water panels in the proposed Quaid-i-Azam solar park.
There is a dire need of awareness campaigns among the masses and a strict action by the government against the tree scavengers. The educational institutions and the district administration can play a pivotal role in tree plantation and tree preserving campaigns. This month, Latifabad College has planted hundreds of trees and ran awareness campaigns. We need more such acts. We have to decide whether we want a greener Pakistan or a barren Pakistan.
