STARK ignorance, coupled with blind prejudice, has got the better of the reason. Conocarpus trees which had transformed the entire appearance of the roadsides are being chopped down or disfigured with complete abandon.

The same lobby in whose eyes the flyovers rankle as thorns now see a potential red in these very leafy, green and admittedly beautiful trees. Field observations falsify the observation that the pollen of the trees causes allergy in the environment of Karachi.

Let us see for a while what field observations tell us.

In some places in Karachi, 'conocarpus' is in the fifth year of fruition. This means that at least in five years, the trees brought out blossoms five times and spread their pollen around.

On Sharea Faisal alone there are 300 trees which are in fruit. This is the second year of the fruition of trees. In Defence and other residential localities the residents have grown conocarpus as a hedging plant. The hedges there have also brought out blossoms at least five times and this is important none of the inmates of those bungalows has contracted any kind of allergy.

If conocarpus, the same species that has been planted on Sharea Faisal, was so dangerous, then their likes planted in parks in many cities of the world would have been chopped down.

I asked an environmentalist who had recently come back from a tour of Bangkok “Have conocarpuses planted there caused any allergy among the citizens of Bangkok?” He said that thus far he had not heard of any case.

The problem with some of our environmentalists is the they go by encyclopaedias and papers that have been published abroad. The data of some species is not valid for all species all over the world.

Let all encyclopaedias and 'Google', the search engine, add to their data these words “The pollen of conocarpus broadleaf does not induce any allergy in the environment of Karachi, field studies have revealed.”

AZMAT ANSARI
Karachi