Who will save green trees from cutting?
This refers to a press conference by a citizen, Mr. Ahasan in Chitral in which he spoke about deforestation in Chitral. Whatever facts he disclosed are ground realities and the timber mafia has started ruthless cutting of greeen deodar in the forest of Shishi Koh and other forest areas.
Mr. Ahasan belongs to Shishi Koh valley where the cutting of the gree trees is in progress and he is eyewitness to the whole situation. Before his press conference, Mr. Rehmat Ali Jaffar Dost had also highlighted this gigantic issue in his various letters to newspapers and websites. But who will listen to these grievances of people is the big question. In Pakistan neither the district government nor provincial government take notice of any issue and it is very dangerous situation through which we are passing. There is a big forest department with its hierarchy starting from the so-called chief conservator to forest guard to lower rank, and these staff are getting millions of rupees from the exchequer as a salary from the taxpayers’ money of this poor country, but all of them do not take notice of any news items or public demand which directly hit their department. It is not a fiction but a fact and we are eyewitnesses to the situation that before our eyes green cutting is taking place in various forest areas of Chitral in the garb of windfall collection and marking, and many environmental activists like Jaffar Dost and Ahsan are trying in vain to bring the issue into the notice of the department but without any notice from the authorities concerned. We have nothing to say in this era of deaf and dumb officials but only request to the people of the respective villages and valleys to come out against timber mafia and stop them from green cutting with public force, because entire department are supporting timber mafia and only public could have the chance of protecting their green gold from the clutches of timber mafia like the courageous people of Ayun.
Nasir Mehmood
Drosh, Chitral (April 17, 2013)]]>