ISLAMABAD: 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 Capital Development Authority (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 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, resident of sector F-10 Dr Hafeez said that green belt 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 tobe protected before they would vanish forever, 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, another resident Shazia Khan said. She observed that CDA had chopped thousands of trees in the last few years but nobody knew where these trees had gone.The CDA conduct a two-day-long tree plantation campaign every year in which hundreds of thousands 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’s concern showed enthusiasm only during the campaign, but the passion subsided with the passage of 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 said that the authority had 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.
