CHITRAL: Chitral Goal l National Park having international importance. Pakistan’s national animal Kashmir Markhor lives here in large numbers, besides national tree Deodar, national flower Chanbeli and national bird Chakor also live in Chitral Gol National Park. According to Mohammad Altaf Ali Shah Shah, Divisional Forest Officer, Wildlife, Chitral Gol National Park, the core zone of this park covers an area of 7,750 hectares, while the buffer zone, which was added later, covers an area of 50,000 hectares. According to him, apart from Markhor, Himalayan lynx, snow leopard, wolf, jackal, marmot etc. are the habitat of wildlife in this park. According to him, 2278 Markhors live here. There were some places in this park which looked very bad and there was a danger for the wildlife because the denser the forest, wildlife considers itself safe and they also get food, fodder from these trees, especially in winter when there is heavy snowfall, the oak trees, which are evergreen, and Markhor survive live by eating their leaves.
Conservator Shaukat Fayaz of Malakand Forest Division was also present to supervise the plantation drive. According to him, the Forest guards of the forest department and the volunteers of Al-Khidmat Foundation are also participating in this campaign. Talking to this scribe , Conservator Forest Shaukat Fayyaz said that the tree works with us from born to death, so we should plant as many trees as possible. In response to a question, he said that there is a lot of burden on the forests of Chitral, especially in winter season, most of the people burn oak forest as fire wood to protect themselves from the cold, due to which the rate of forests is decreasing. The only solution is to save forest is to provide cheap electricity or gas to the people of Chitral so that they can use electric or gas heaters instead for cooking and heating purposes instead of burning firewood.
Divisional Forest Officer Asif Ali Shah, Sub-Divisional Forest Officer Chitral Yusuf Farhad, Sub-Divisional Forest Officer Drosh Umarir Nawaz, Divisional Forest Officer Wildlife Chitral Goal National Park Mohammad Altaf Ali Shah, Block Officer Aziz Wali and other officials also participated in the plantation campaign. While supervising the plantation, the Naghiban (caretakers) were also trained to properly plant the saplings.
In this campaign, 3,000 Deodar saplings were planted at the scenic place of Chitral goal National park. It is hoped that when these saplings grow up and become trees, a dense forest will be seen here, at present this was look a bad seen like a desert. The beauty of the forest will increase while the greatest benefit will be to the wildlife because the denser the forest, make happier the wildlife is. On this occasion, the officers of the forest department also urged the nation to actively participate with them in this good cause and every Pakistani must plant at least one tree so that the shortage of forests in the country can be controlled. According to experts, the higher rate of afforestation will have a positive impact on climate change and also protect us from more damages in the form of natural disasters.
By: Gul Hamad Farooqui.
