National News

ISLAMABAD, (APP): The Federal Capital had surroundings with a
natural look, beautiful trees and beds of wild flowers but it is fast losing the precious greenery, which is product of ill-planned development and poor management of the CDA.
The trees, which bloom in different colours during different seasons in Islamabad, are continuously dying at an alarming rate because of the negligence of the Capital Development Authority (CDA).
The federal city has remained famous for its natural beauty.
No wonder, the number of dead trees is increasing with each passing
day as a result of the slackness on the part of environment wing of the civic body.
The unfortunate trend is resulting in rapid shrinking of most
of the greenbelt with adverse effects on environment, as the
population of the city is increasing while noise, dust, smoke and
all the other kinds of pollution is increasing.
Talking to APP, Dr Hafeez resident of sector F-10 said that
greenbelt located in F series had the largest number of dead trees.
Greenery, once a hallmark of Islamabad, now only existed in the
lawns of posh sectors of the capital; therefore, old trees needed to
be protected before they would vanish for ever, he opined.
Preservation of old trees was a common practice in the
developed countries, but the CDA had not made any efforts to tackle
the challenge, Shazia Khan another resident said.
She observed that CDA had chopped thousands of trees in the last
few years but no body knew where these trees had gone.
The CDA conduct a two-day-long tree plantation campaign every
year in which hundreds of thousand of saplings are planted, but
surprisingly, the result is quite opposite, as the tree cover in
Islamabad is decreasing at an alarming rate.
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 some time.
There is no effective mechanism of monitoring the newly-planted trees and not enough staff to look after the saplings.
As a result, most of them die within days after their plantation.
However, a CDA official says the authority has increased the
number of new sapling from 400,000 to 500,000 during the Spring Tree
Plantation Campaign.
Out of the total planted saplings, more than 50 percent plants have grown thanks to strict monitoring, while further measures will be taken to improve their survival rate.