F.P. Report
HARIPUR: Former chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Senator Peer Sabir Shah Wednesday said mushroom growth of societies and unchecked chopping of trees were degrading environment. He said unfortunately, people have removed gardens from their houses and jungle land was being occupied by profiteers in the name of housing societies. Now the time has come to sensitize the people about the grave concerns of environmental degradation and convince them to plant more and more trees, he added.
He was addressing “Sarsabz o Shadab Pakistan” tree plantation drive organized by the National Highways and Motorways at Kala Khatta here. Motorways Police has not only introduced the best traffic system in Pakistan but they also gave the lesson to plant beautiful trees on roads.
He further said that to tackle the challenge of global warming and save our future we have to plant trees and aware masses about this responsibility. While addressing on the occasion Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Motorway police Muhammad Umer Shaikh said that to stop the soil erosion and environmental pollution trees play vital role and plantation is must now. He stated that IG motorways police Kaleem Imam have started a plantation drive around the motorways, which would also make the motorways more beautiful.
Giving details of the forests in Pakistan DIG motorways said that we have only 4 percent of land under forests which is very less, adding to improve the forests ratio every person of this society should have to play his/her role. He said that total area of motorways in Pakistan is 2500 to 2700 kilometers which would be 5000 kilometers within next three years. “We have formed RSO units which have started awareness campaign amongst the educational institutions, drivers and others regarding road safety.” Project Director Frontier Works Organization (FWO) disclosed that up till now 4 million saplings have been planted around F2 and more 40000 trees would be planted. Earlier, Senator Peer Sabir Shah planted a sapling and kicked off the plantation drive.
