Hunger strikers demand ban on comemrcial cutting of forests

CHITRAL, April 23: The members and activists of a civil society organization in Ayun observed a token hunger strike against cutting of forests in Chitral  The Tahafuzi Haqooq-e-Jangalat Ayun urged the district administration as well as the provincial government to impose a ban on the cutting of forest. Talking to this scribe, they said Chitral is a big district by virtue of area where the forest cover was only 1.67 per cent. They appealed to the provincial government for banning commercial cutting of forest. They said that according to the provincial government notification of 1975, forest is state property and people of Chitral deserve the royalty of forest. They said that the forest department should first fulfill the requirement of the local people instead of sending timber out of the valley. They alleged that deserving people had to give bribe to the joint forest management committees to get legal permit for timber during construction of their houses. They said that the government got millions of dollars from IMF for the conservation of forest but the forest department itself was involved in brutality cutting of the forest. They said that due to the rampant deforestation floods had damaged the area beyond repair since 2010. They said that the elected representatives of Chitral were also supporting and hands in glove with the timber mafia. They are also not interested in banning the cutting of forest.–Gul Hamaad Farooqi  ]]>