CDA for ‘clean and green Islamabad’

ISLAMABAD: Capital Development Authority (CDA) Chairman Syed Tahir Shahbaz on Tuesday launched a ‘Spring Tree Plantation Campaign’ by planting a sapling between the green belt of sector E10 and E11.

Various members of the CDA Board, officials of the civic authority, students from different schools and universities, environmentalists and representatives of various NGOs were also present on the occasion.

The CDA chairman said, “Environmental pollution has become the biggest threat to human life and can only be prevented by maximum plantation of trees. The CDA is making efforts for fulfilling this national responsibility.” He also said, “Tree plantation is our national as well as religious responsibility, as deforestation in the country has increased the demand for tree plantation on a mammoth level to meet the required green cover for a better environment. Every citizen should plant trees to overcome the shortage of forests.”

Syed Tahir Shahbaz added that the participation of a large number of children in the tree plantation campaign highlighted the importance of environment, as children are the true catalyst of change. He also said that strict monitoring should be carried out to ensure maximum survival of the planted saplings. He called upon the participants to inculcate the message of love for trees to the people they interact with. CDA Environmental Member Dr Kazim Niaz informed the media that during this campaign, 500,000 saplings would be planted in urban and regional areas of the Capital.

He also said that saplings would be planted in sectors I9, I10, G6 and G7, whereas 0.35 million saplings would be planted at the Margalla Hills and the National Park. The CDA management also organised a walk from Sector F11 to Sector E11 as part of the campaign. CDA Media Assistant Director Muhammad Saleem Aktar, describing the purpose of the walk, told Daily Times that the aim of the walk was to involve the general public in the efforts for a “clean and green Islamabad”.

During the walk, members of the CDA Environment Wing displayed posters, banners and streamers in different areas of the city and car-stickers, paper-bags and badges carrying slogans for planting trees and other informative material were distributed among participants of the walk.

Though the CDA conducts a two-day tree plantation campaign every year, in which hundreds of thousand of saplings are planted, surprisingly, the end result is quite opposite, as the tree cover in the capital has been decreasing at an alarming rate. A CDA official said, “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 time.” The official also said, “There is no effective mechanism to monitor the newly planted trees and not enough staff to look after the saplings.”

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