May 18, 2007	Friday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 01, 1428

LAHORE, May 17: The provincial metropolis may be further deprived of its vegetation cover as around 4,000 more trees are under threat because of execution of two development projects.

The issue was being considered at an inter-departmental coordination committee’s meeting which was underway at the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Thursday. What transpired during the meeting could not be ascertained till the filing of this report.

The agenda of the meeting says that for widening of around four-kilometer road from Avian Chowk to Multan Road through the Allama Iqbal Town, some 3,000 trees will have to be chopped off. The project will also require relocation of 165 electricity poles, Sui gas pipes and a petrol pump.

In the official jargon, a `tree’ has a minimum of one-foot girth and the vegetation falling short of the criteria is taken as shrub or bush.

Another construction project which is feared to claim hundreds of trees is a proposed underpass on the Lahore Canal aimed at re-establishing the road link between New Garden Town and Muslim Town.

Interestingly, the inter-departmental meeting accepts that 882 trees will have to be felled to materialise the project. But, the environment impact assessment (EIA) report prepared by the National Engineering Services Pakistan (Nespak), the designer of the project, says that around 300 trees will have to be cut down to make way for the second underpass across the water channel. The first underpass has already been built to link Punjab University hostels to its academic blocs situated across the canal.

Over 5,000 grown-up trees have been slaughtered during construction of eight underpasses and Thokar Niaz Baig interchange, along the canal.

The city district government, in collaboration with the communications and works department, is also working on a plan to widen the Lahore Canal, which, according to the official data, will result in cutting of 1,800 grownup trees, while civil society organisations put the figure over 10,000.

A similar fate awaits around 1,000 trees standing along the Ferozepur Road for which a re-modeling and widening plan has already been approved by the CDGL.

The trees are being cut not only for widening the existing roads or constructing new ones, but also to enhance visibility of certain state buildings or to make room for parking of vehicles.

At least 300 trees were cut or their tops were toppled by the Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) authorities in the name of security of its various buildings last month. Similarly, the Parks and Horticulture Authority had removed several trees along the Garden Town Main Boulevard to enhance visibility of various private structures.

In another move, the Gulberg Town administration brought down 11 grownup trees in Barket Market of Garden Town on Wednesday (May 16) for the commercial district needed more space for parking purposes.

A bridge, known as Lal Pul, which linked Muslim Town with New Garden Town, was demolished by the incumbent government in 2003, ignoring protest by area residents.

Its demolition also caused difficulties to students of scores of schools functioning along both banks of the canal as they had to take a long route to reach their destinations.