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| April 3, 2006 | Monday | Rabi-ul-Awwal 4, 1427 |
Safari park planned in Malakand
PESHAWAR, April 2: The provincial government is planning to set up a safari park for wildlife conservation alongside the Swat River, between Batkhela and Thana in Malakand Agency, NWFP Environment Secretary Noorul Haq said here on Sunday.
“I had a detailed meeting with a delegation led by the Batkhela tehsil nazim and decided that the required land for the park will be arranged by the locals and the NWFP wildlife department will make necessary constructions besides providing precious wildlife species,” he told APP.
Mr Haq, who is also secretary of forests, wildlife, fisheries and transport, said that at least 50 acres of land in Batakhela was needed to establish the wildlife sanctuary.
“We plan to start work on the project from the month of July but it is subject to availability of land from the district government of Malakand,” he said.
Environment Minister Shah Raz Khan is taking “keen interest in the safari park”, because it will help conserve the country’s precious wildlife species, according to Mr Haq.
Asked about a mysterious attack on a few conifer trees at Kotigram in Lower Dir, he said two teams of researchers from the national forest institute and provincial directorate of research and development have visited the affected forest area to determine its causes.
The teams are expected to submit their recommendations in a couple of weeks.
Mr Haq said the government would set up four vehicular emission testing stations (VETS) in D.I. Khan, Bannu, Kohat and Mardan shortly to check smoke emitting vehicles besides monitoring the pollution level including carbon dioxide and lead on daily basis to arrest the ever growing menace of pollution.
Two stations have already been set up in Abbottabad and Swat to check smoke-emitting buses, cars and auto rickshaws and educate motorists about the perils of vehicle emissions.
“The department has banned two-stroke rickshaws — the main cause of pollution — and replaced them with four-stroke rickshaws,” he added.
Previous governments had paid less attention to developmental projects of the environment department. “The provincial government is utilising all the resources, allocating huge amount of Rs30million for developmental projects of environment in 2005-06 as against Rs15 million in 2003-04,” he said.
To a question, he said a total of six developmental schemes including ones covering most of the dirty drains in Hayatabad, urban plantation at the graveyards on Charssadda Road and Rehman Baba and roadside plantation in the current fiscal year had been made to ensure a pollution-free environment.
He said unhygienic water, unplanned drainage system and unfinished construction work were the major factors contributing to environmental pollution and degradation.
The department has established environmental clubs in government schools and colleges to create awareness among students against the health hazards of pollution, he added.
Mr Haq said the department had taken several steps for disposing of and recycling solid waste by taking Pabbi in Nowshera, Chakdara in Upper Dir, Mingora in Swat and Haripur as model areas for pollution-free-environment to the people besides arresting the spread of cancer, asthma and ENT diseases.
Mr Haq said the forest department under a ten-year plan had chalked out a visionary policy to increase the forest and vegetative cover from its existing 17.8 per cent to 25 per cent of the total land area of the NWFP through a participatory and integrated approach.
He said four new branches of research development, community development, human resource directorate and planning and evaluation centres had been set up to train human resource in the field of biology, forestry and wildlife conservation.
He underscored the need for collective efforts among all the stakeholders to arrest the menace of pollution and to ensure better environment for our coming generation. —APP
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