August 20, 2008	Wednesday	Sha’aban 17, 1429

KARACHI, Aug 19: Trees covering almost 95 per cent of the around 28,000 acres of forests in Hyderabad have been illegally felled during the last seven years, says a report.

The report, prepared by Hyderabad Forests Conservator Habibullah Nizamani, puts the losses, besides the degradation of the environment owing to deforestation, at over Rs87 million.

Sources said that it was just the tip of the iceberg as the report was based on the position of forest cover in just one district of the province. The situation was also expected to be similar in other districts of the province, they said.

The report submitted to the Sindh chief forest conservator, Rahim Bux Awan, eventually reached the forests secretary who has ordered an inquiry to fix responsibility.

The report says that as against the area of over 28,826 acres containing growth in the year 2000 at present only 1,075 acres, with tree cover, is available. Thus, the vegetative cover of over 27,751 acres in Hyderabad Afforestation Division has perished in about seven to eight years.

According to the report, details of the growth sold officially and the booked damage (trees felled illegally and were caught by the foresters) during the year 2000 and 2008 had not been provided by the official concerned – Divisional forest officer Syed Wasif Ali Shah – despite repeated requests.

The report says that even if such area of official harvesting and booking of damage through recovery of compensations and registration of cases are deducted, the growth at the time of preparation of the management plan over an area of more than 20,000 acres is the material which has been unlawfully cut down and removed as it is not available now.

The report says that as per the management plan the estimated material available in the year 2000 was 11,301 stacks – wood collected from two acres make a stack.

At present the tree cover is only around 1,075 acres, and at a rate of 0.5 stacks per acre – although even this is on the higher side – the available stock will be about 537 stacks.

The report says that the growth officially auctioned (approximately 1,500 stacks) and growth of local damage (approximately 500 stacks) booked through compensation and lodging of FIRs/FORs (first offence reports) from 2000 to 2008 will be at maximum 2,000 stacks. Thus the net loss of missing unaccounted for growth will be around 8,764 stacks. The minimum market rate per stack is Rs10,000 and the total loss comes to around Rs87 million.

The report further says it is the minimum loss sustained by the government as the increment—expected or proposed in the management plan — put in by trees from the year 2000 onwards have not been included.

The report suggests formation of a high-level committee from outside the department or comprising senior retired foresters to probe into the matter and fix responsibility so that the culprits can be punished.

According to sources in the department, when Conservator Nizamani initially asked his subordinate DFO Wasif Shah to prepare and submit a report on the issue, the DFO filed an incomplete and as the sources put it misleading report. It was only after much persuasion that accurate data was provided, they said.

They said that after Mr Nizamani had submitted the report to the chief conservator a large number of his colleagues started opposing him as they feared that if the department instituted a high-level inquiry into the matter, their corrupt practices would come to light.

This writer repeatedly tried to contact Chief Forest Conservator Rahim Bux Awan to obtain information about the steps so far taken on the basis of the report but the latter was not available for comment.

It is worth mentioning that Mr Awan is among the few officials posted in a higher grade. Mr Awan is in BPS 19 and the post he is holding is of BPS 20, despite a policy decision taken by Sindh Chief Minister Syed Qaim Ali Shah.

Responding to Dawn’s queries, Sindh Forest Secretary Mushtaq Memon said that after receiving the report he had ordered that similar reports be prepared for all the forest lands in the province.

He said that he had also ordered that responsibility should also be fixed on the relevant forest officials.