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CHITRAL, Mar 21 (APP):The plantation drive for the year 2024 will be initiated by planting a record 200,000 saplings in Police Line Chitral Lower and distributing them free of cost to the people.
In this connection, a simple ceremony was also held in Police Line Chitral.
Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) Abdul Majid, Sub Divisional Forest Officer (SDFO) Yousaf Farhad, Assistant Commissioner Chitral Dr. Atif Jalib, Director Agriculture, District Officer of Sail and Water Conservation, Mujeeb-ur-Rehman, Commandant Chitral Scouts, Major Admin, DPOs and officers of other departments participated in plantation campaign.
DFO Chitral Abdul Majeed highlighted the importance of plants and trees. He said that the forest department has been distributing free saplings to Chitral Police which will be planted in different Police Stations.
In reply to a question, he said that since Chitral is a cold area, where in some areas severely cold weather is unbearable and the people here cut firewood for burning to protect themselves from the cold as well as use it for cooking which causes a lot of burden on the forests and if this situation remained to continue in the next thirty years, there would be no tree or plants in this region.
He suggested that if the people of Chitral were provided cheap electricity or LPG gas at a subsidized rate, they would use gas or electric heaters for cooking and heating purposes instead of burning wood as a result it would reduce the burden on the forests.
Sub Divisional Forest Officer Yousaf Farhad said that these trees also work as a natural check dam because Chitral is a dry zone. When it is raining, flood water flows very fast and the nullahs from the mountains occur in the form of destructive floods.
It also often causes human life and financial loss, but in the mountains or fields where plants and trees are on a large scale, it slows down the flood water and reduces its speed. If the flood water flows at a low speed, it is not so damaged, he added.
He added that because of these trees and plants, we can also save from the negative impact of climate change.