News Desk |
Federal Government will commence a nationwide tree plantation drive in the first week of August, part of the monsoon plantation drive on ‘Plant Pakistan Day’. As monsoon season grips the country, the government believes it is the fertile period to thrive plantation across the country.
Prime Minister Imran Khan will launch the plantation drive by planting a sapling on ‘Plant for Pakistan Day’. The ceremony to inaugurate the plantation drive will take place at 161 places throughout the country. A million saplings will be planted on the first day of the drive, claimed a government official.
According to documents, nine million saplings will be planted in Punjab, 104 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 15 million in Sindh, 1.2 million in Balochistan, 3.3 million in Gilgit-Baltistan, seven million in Azad Kashmir and 0.5 million in Islamabad.
The vision of green Pakistan is close to the heart of premier Imran Khan, pressing multiple times the importance of forestation projects in Pakistan in his public addresses.
On the first day of the campaign, one million saplings will be planted — 224,000 of them in Punjab, 600,000 in Sindh, 70,000 in K-P, 10,000 in Balochistan, 5,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 3,000 in Islamabad.
The deputy director of Punjab’s forest department, Mohammad Salim Malik, informed a large number of civilians including, school students, college students, members of non-governmental organizations and citizens from every corner of life will participate in the tree plantation drive in their respective areas.
“Saplings will be planted in various parks including Jallo Park, Karol Jungle and Changa Manga Forest and their surrounding areas. Similarly, over 343,000 saplings will be planted on August 8 and 9 under the campaign name of Plant for Punjab.”
Read more: 100 million trees to be planted in Pakistan over five years
The government has also provided 0.3 million plants to Pakistan Army as part of the Sarsabz-o-Shadab Pakistan campaign.
PM Khan’s Vision of Green Pakistan
The vision of green Pakistan is close to the heart of premier Imran Khan, pressing multiple times the importance of forestation projects in Pakistan in his public addresses.
Prone to adverse climatic changes, Pakistan is ranked sixth in the list of 10 most vulnerable countries to be severely affected by climate change, the implications of which are visible with the persistent decline in the annual rainfall received in the country.
Hundreds and thousands of variety of tree were planted across, which triggered a boom in the cottage industry of backyard nurseries, mitigated the havoc of floods, and curtailed timber smuggling in the region.
Forest and plant populations have shrunk from 1,515,000 hectares in 2014 to 1.429,000 hectares in 2016. The World Health Organization report 2015 quoted a grim figure of nearly 60,000 people in Pakistan losing their lives to air pollution; the report termed it the highest death toll from air pollution.
The deadly floods in the monsoon season of 2014 caused soil erosions, submerging towns and villages leading to the death of 110 people. In recent years, Punjab has been adversely hit by smog, with air toxicity in Lahore reaching an alarming level.
The Tehreek-I-Insaf, assuming power in the center, propelled a tree plantation drive across the country swiftly. The incumbent government has pledged to plant 10 billion trees part of a countrywide Tree Tsunami project in the next five years to fight climate change.
Read more: Clean and Green: Islamabad to become plastic-free
The Ministry of Climate Change is working relentlessly to achieve the objective. Since the end of the preceding year, the ministry has collaborated with numerous state and private institutions to plant trees in Pakistan, kicking off the spring season in Pakistan by planting 95.4 million saplings across the country, part of ‘Plant for Pakistan‘ drive in February.
PM Khan’s government retrieved large chunks of encroached land from land-grabbers for afforestation in Punjab.
In February, PM Khan had initiated a plantation drive on the recovered land from the mafia in Nankana Sahib Lahore. On the occasion, PM Khan claimed it is an epoch-making event that a massive plantation drive in the country has been carried out on the 2500 acres of land reclaimed from land mafia.
Read more: PM Khan launches plantation drive on land retrieved from encroachment mafia
Tehreek-I-Insaf, during their maiden government in KP, benchmarked a billion trees plantation drive, the success of which made waves globally. Hundreds and thousands of variety of tree were planted across, which triggered a boom in the cottage industry of backyard nurseries, mitigated the havoc of floods, and curtailed timber smuggling in the region.