December 17, 2002	Tuesday	Shawwal 12, 1423

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PESHAWAR, Dec 16: The NWFP forest department is reluctant to allow the directorate of mines and minerals to explore marble and iron deposits in the Malakand protected areas and Dera Ismail Khan regions, according to official sources.

The forest department had recently received a formal request from the directorate of mines and minerals, NWFP, seeking permission for carrying out mining activities in the surroundings of the lush green Malam Jaba hill resort (Malakand) and Sheikh Budin (Dera Ismail Khan) to obtain marble, iron, silica and limestone.

Chief conservator, forest, Ghazi Marjan said the directorate had approached the forest department to obtain a ‘No Objection Certificate’ for conducting mining activities on a limited scale in two protected areas — Malam Jaba and Shiekh Budin.

“But their request has not been positively responded to,” said Mr Marjan.

The existing forest laws, according to the chief conservator, prohibited such activities in protected areas which caused damage to ecological system and destroyed wildlife habitats.

Section 33 (F), sub clause (G) of the NWFP Forest Ordinance, 2002, does not allow any activity which pollutes soil or water by sewage, sewerage, domestic or industrial waste or through any other pollutants or means.

Official sources in the directorate said that they had detected deposits of marble, iron and other minerals in these two sites.

Following the discovery of mineral deposits, the directorate asked the forest department to earmark some five thousand acres of land in Sheikh Budin in Dera Ismail Khan to obtain iron, silica, limestone and literate deposits.

Whereas in Malam Jaba, a valley in the former princely state of Swat and a famous tourist resort — situated about 2,743 meters above the sea level — the directorate required some sites to obtain marble.

The refusal on the part of forest department to permit exploration has been attributed to unprofessional mining practices and blasting due to which huge amount of mineral resources are lost every year.

The forest department officials said that private sector mostly used dynamites and other unorganised methods during excavation that resulted in high rate of wastage, on the one hand, and degraded environment and destroyed natural resources of the area, on the other.

The NWFP, Balochistan and Fata jointly house marble reserves of 160 million tons. But more than 70 per cent of the total excavated marble are wasted due to unplanned methods of exploration.

“Private sector uses unscientific methods in exploration,” an official of the forest department said, adding that such outdated methods put negative effect on forests, wildlife and natural beauty of the area.

The directorate official acknowledged that the provincial law department also turned down their plea, because there was no provision in the existing law, following which the directorate sought the governor’s intervention to resolve the issue.

The officials concerned said that despite non-availability of any provision in the law, the governor approved the summary, keeping in view great deposits of mineral in these areas.