KARACHI, July 22: The City District Government Karachi’s ambitious plan to transform the ‘concrete jungle’ into an environment-friendly lush green city is experiencing hiccups mainly because of a wrangling between the two departments over the question of jurisdiction.
The plan, Mission Greener Karachi, was launched on September 12 last year with an enthusiastic pledge that the city’s old glory would be changed to a great extent through this mission.
Saplings with forest dept
The city government had undertaken the gigantic job of planting no less than 500,000 trees in the heart of the city and its outskirts.
The Mission Greener Karachi was entrusted to the city government’s forest department which was provided with an unspecified but huge number of saplings, along with accessories. However, the lands specified for the purpose appeared either insufficient or out of its jurisdiction.
Forest Department officials maintained that none of the specified lands happened to be in the heart of the city.
The department’s jurisdiction covers the lands in Malir, Gadap, Keamari and Bin Qasim towns where it planted tens of thousands of saplings but the ‘concrete jungle’ evaded the campaign as it fell in the towns far away from the jurisdiction of the department.
Land control
While the mission was carried on by the department over a period of many months, the ruthless construction in the areas primarily targeted in the plan continued unabated and remained devoid of greenery.
The forest department kept complaining that despite being part of the CDGK, it did not have the jurisdictional control of these areas.
Arif Bhatti, chairman of the city government’s forest committee said all major thoroughfares under the CDGK control fell in the jurisdiction of the Parks and Horticulture Department and not the Forest Department.
As for the progress of the mission, Mr Bhatti said the Forest Department had no choice but to stop the tree plantation campaign.
The forest committee, however, has not lost its heart. “We have taken up the matter with senior officials of the city government with a suggestion that a resolution be passed in the city council to make way for the Mission Greener Karachi by allowing the forest department to plant trees anywhere in the city,” said Mr Bhatti.
Optimism justifiable
Karachi’s 19 major thoroughfares focused in the Mission Greener Karachi are under the administrative control of the CDGK. The forest committee is optimistic about being allowed access to all these roads through the proposed resolution for the purpose of tree plantation. Its optimism is understandable in view of the fact that the mission is headed by Ms Nasreen Jalil, who is convener of the City Council.
According to Ms Jalil, as many as 250,000 saplings had been planted in the first phase of the campaign either by the forest department or the agencies and authorities controlling different lands in the city. The first phase is over with 50 per cent work done, she says, adding that the second phase has just begun.
Mr Bhatti said his department had handed over 1,000 saplings each to all 18 towns of the city.
It has been gathered, however, that no town has yet started planting the saplings to revive the mission.
