Let us Move to Protect Chitral

Chitral had been rich resort of foreign and domestic tourists due to its greenery and unique indigenous culture. Large number of tourists visits this green belt of KPK even from foreign countries and contributes too much to local economy and also provides employment opportunities to local youth in tourism industry. Besides all these positive indicators recently self-interested group and timber mafia have created havoc with the green gold of Chitral in order to enrich themselves at the cost of whole population. If corrective measures are not taken well in time to control deforestation whole of Chitral will be converted into barren land within no time and whole infrastructure of tourism industry will demolish in the area. Deforestation also
poses serious threat to wildlife especially Snow leopard and Markhore which have sole habitation in Chitral.

 Following immediate steps are to be taken by concern authorities to ensure dream of clean and green Chitral as well as to restore natural beauty of this peaceful district.

1. Marking and artificial harvesting should be banned with immediate effect.
2. Movement of timber from outside district should be controlled and properly banned.
3. In common practice local community acquire permit for their domestic use but timber mafia supply quadruple of the permit with the support of forest department official this trend should be controlled.
4. There should be proper plantation system in Chitral and local community may be involved in the whole process of plantation and after caring of the new plants.
5. Recently public uprising is also visible in various parts of Chitral against marking and artificial harvesting because in the garb of wind fall, dry standing green trees are observed to be harvested in the forest of Chitral by forest contractors involved in the process of marking. This trend should be investigated and controlled with immediate effect.
6. District Administration is also having consultation with local community to soften their grievances against marking so that mass movement could be averted in the district which also poses serious administrative problems when whole of the people will come out from their home against marking.
7. Local community especially youth community, teachers, students and other patriotic people are requested to raise their voice against this menace of deforestation and marking which is disfiguring natural
beauty of Chitral.
8. President of Pakistan, Prime Minister of Pakistan, and opposition leader in the National Assemble, Chief Minister KPK and Governor KPK are requested to save beauty of Chitral by controlling marking and
artificial harvesting in Chitral.
9. International community and environmental protection organization are also requested to save Natural beauty of Chitral by raising their
voice against marking and deforestation in Chitral. -- Rehmat Ali Jaffar Dost, Environmental activist Chitral 16 Nov 2011.

Comment 1

Rehmat Ali Jaffar has raised an important issue and posed a plausible solution. Indeed, the non stop deforestation is not only deteriorating the natural beauty of Chitral but also endangering the life of thousands. Forests not only add charm to the beauty of the green valleys but they are also an important factor in making life possible in any region. In summers, they hold the soil tightly beneath them to stop frequent floods during the rains. In winters, they slow down and break up any snow flow from above, and thus prevent heavy avalanches. In many valleys like Shishikoh, forests are a matter of life and death for the people. In such narrow valleys there is a dearth of vast plains in between , and thus people have to build their houses in steep slops which are not only vulnerable to the landslides but also to the heavy avalanches and devastating floods. Also, in the recent past, the heavy rains and floods have reduced the already small cultivable land to a negligible one. Besides these, the road from Drosh to Madaklasht ,which is one of the dangerous roads in the district, is always adversely affected due to rains in summers or snowfall in winters . Consequently, people have to bear a lot of unwanted trouble every year.
In a nut a shell, deforestation endangers life, brings calamity, destroys the beauty, undermines the economy and halts the progress. Therefore, if the govt and the people don't take any serious step now to curb the menace of deforestation then one day these beautiful valleys will turn into one of the worst places to live in.-- Yasir Ali , NUST, Karachi, 19 Nov 2011.

Comment 2

This refers to Rehmat Ali Jaffar's letter, "Let's move to protect Chitral". According an IUCN published satellite image 2001, we have less than 4% of the total area with forest cover. This is simply not enough for a population of over 400000 to survive on. Unfortunately our forest has been cruelly dealt with by those at the helm of affairs. In the name of so-called 'permit' they get the liberty to do away with as much forest trees as they can. The quadruple use of a single permit is a blot on their as well as on the face of the concerned department. Everyone knows that the Forest Department actively assists the 'mafia' in this malpractice or there is no possibility for the multiple use of a single permit or felling standing trees in the name of wind fall. The point to understand for Chitralis is that all this is being done at the risk of our survival. There is need for the revival of the Chipko movement, thereby the activists in Utarakhand Indian Himalaya, sacrificed their lives by hugging the trees and protected their forest from the cruel contractors. -- Shah Karez, Chitral 21 Nov 2011

Comment 3

This is in further inquisitive to Rehmat Ali Jaffar’s article with having titled “Let us move to protect Chitral”, where the learnt writer pointed out several recommendations to revive our extinct forests resources. I salute to him for his splendid contributions in making Greener Chitral by conducting different awareness events and the people reading this online news are well aware of his remarkable activities. I also thanks to Yasir Ali and Shah Karez sb for their valuable contributions to the topic in different prospective. There are many reasons for this ruthless deforestation in Chitral and besides other the high ranked officials working in Chitral from outside districts greatly contributed in making barren Chitral. It has been observed in the past that the high ranked Govt and Scouts Officials choose Chitral based posting only for making furniture’s and houses from the most precious “Pinus” trees and transported via Govt’s vehicles to their home towns. Consequently, the forest cover in Chitral is now not more than 2% of the total area and that posed high risk to the natural and anthropogenic calamities. In the recent years you may have seen floods in many villages in southern Chitral and the number is increasing year after year.

Rehmat sb requested to Govt and NGOs to work in reviving forest in Chitral. I think Govt has the forest department, but lack of budget and research abilities are the main hindrance in the reforestation process. If they just bother to plant some trees and they would definitely die off without any care and also variety may not compatible to Chitral’s environmental conditions. Moreover, NGOs also had many projects for reforestations, but nowadays you can just see their signboard along the road and actually nothing appear on the ground due to neglecting of sustainability component in the project cycle. So, now only the people of Chitral can make it possible to protect our indigenous natural resources. Chitral’s need hundreds of volunteer like Mr. Rehmat Ali Jaffar to protect our forest, wild resources and efficiently utilizes the funded moneys in protecting and preserving Chitral’s assets. -- Shams Ali Baig, International College of Environmental and Resource Sciences, Zhejiang University Hangzhou, China, 28 Nov 2011.

Comment 4

The point raised by Rehmat ali is appreciable and all the comments done are valuable. Deforestation in Chitral is increasing day by day with the increase in requirements of the mass.It must be checked by the government otherwise we may lost the natural beauty and wild life of this area that will ultimately detract the number of tourist coming to chitral. -- Ilyas Hussain agriculture university Peshawar, 28 Nov 2011

Comment 5

This letter  refers to Rehmat Ali Jafardost important initiative regarding protection of our forest which are already at deplorable condition.  Whole of Chitral with estimated 400000 population is dependent on the meager forest resources exists in southern Chitral for supply of timber and fuel wood. This time community members of Chitral are facing acute shortage of fuel wood and price of the stuff has also raised to sky rocket level. In the year 2008 timber rate perfeet in Chitral market was Rs.250 which has raised to Rs.500 level this time. In such circumstance construction of house for poverty ridden members of community in Chitral has become almost impossible.
This is the result of  marking/artificial harvesting which is taking place in various forest areas of Chitral and mass smuggling of timber from Chitral to down country by few contractors who are involved in the process of deforestation and smuggling.If this process continued without break then rate of timber for construction of houses by local community will increase to Rs.1000 per feet within no time and whole of timber will be shifted from Chitral to down country. Local community would raise their voice against this menace of deforestation and marking as soon as possible otherwise it will be too late to convert green Chitral into barren land. -- Ghani Ur Rahman. Chitral, 28 Nov 2011.

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