| ISLAMABAD - At the time when city managers are running spring tree plantation drives across the city, unfortunately timber mafia is also chopping grown trees with the same pace in convenience with the concerned field officers of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
Though, cutting of trees from the forest area in the capital city is not a secret anymore in an organized manner, now the grown trees planted several years ago in the right of ways of main roads and from the green belts of the sectoral areas are also increasing day by day. As shown in a video available with this scribe it is clearly evident that a large number of grown trees were systematically chopped alongside the main Kashmir Highway near zero point interchange.
Sources inside the environment wing informed that precious species like Sheesham, which were planted several years ago are now being stolen with the help of field officers as it is used to make expensive furniture. It can be seen in the video that only Sheesham trees were being chopped down while rest of the less expensive trees were not axed, which shows that the trees were not stolen for domestic purposes but it is happening in an organized manner.
Meanwhile, it has also been learnt reliably that the authority did not have a specific data having number, age and location of such grown trees while the numbers of plants are also highly exaggerated by the concerned formations during seasonal campaigns. The Director General Environment Irfan Khan Niazi was tried to contact to know his input on the issue, but he was unavailable to respond. Meanwhile, the city managers while shifting their responsibility on the shoulders of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) on Monday have decided to allow the board to recruit 400 fire-fighters to control spread of fire during dry season. The city managers remained in a fix over continuous fire incidents in last season as massive fires erupted time and again in Margalla Hills National Park and to control it, CDA had engaged untrained fire fighters on its own; however, now the responsibility is given in this regard to the IWMB. A meeting in this regard was held at CDA under the chair of Chief Commissioner Islamabad and Chairman CDA Noor ul Amin Mengal in which it is decided that in next fire season, the precautionary measures including engagement of fire fighters would be taken by the IWMB but the authority will provide required funds and also help in controlling the fire when needed. |
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