ISLAMABAD, Dec 8 (APP): Deputy Commissioner (DC) Islamabad Muhammad Hamza Shafqaat on Tuesday appealed volunteers to throw seeds balls while walking through different trails to increase green cover at Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP).
He asked the visitors of MHNP to collect a bag of seed balls free of cost from the counter displayed at the entry point of each trail and throw them on your way up the trail.
Talking to APP, the DC said each bag contained 25 seed balls and about 1.5 million seed balls with four pine seeds each (six million seeds) have been thrown into Margallas.
Some 25 trips were made each day for the last two weeks to spread 1.5 million seed balls at the Margallas, starting from Daman-e-Koh to Bara Kahu, he said.
“Even if 50 per cent seeds get successfully planted, three million trees would be added to MHNP,” he remarked.
Shafqaat appreciated those who participated in this drive including people from civil society, media and other walks of life to the most visited trails including trail three, five and six of Margalla Hills.
To a query, the DC said not a single rupee from government account was spent on this campaign. It was done purely on voluntary basis with support from a company.
The growth rate of a seed is just 10pc which is why, across the world, seed balls are used to raise growth rate to 50 per cent, he said in response to another query.
