No, not just threatened but a slice of it, part of the original Garden of Eden in which Adam and Eve wandered, about to be destroyed, the stage all set for one of the greatest environmental catastrophes about to hit Pakistan.

In the foothills of the Salt Range lies the magical valley of Kahoon, stretching from Kallar Kahar in the west to the magnificent ruins of the ancient Hindu temples at Katas in the east.

At the time of creation, according to Hindu mythology, the Lord Shiva shed a tear which fell at Kataksha (corrupted over time to Katas) to form a pool of immeasurable depth and limitless water. The pool is still there, its depth plumbed by no one and its water said to be limitless.

Along the valley on either side run a line of low-lying hills which rise higher towards the east before finally merging into the upper reaches of the Salt Range. Small farmsteads dot the valley and fresh water springs flow down from the hills.

The landscape is not stark or dramatic. It is soft and languorous, done in soft colours and painted with a light brush by the Lord of Creation in happy and gentle mood. I am not exaggerating.

Travel through this valley and a Hindu will believe that this indeed was the place where Lord Shiva shed a tear. A pagan will believe that when the world was young the gods walked through the long amphitheatre formed by the hills.

A Christian will believe that when God created the world in six days, on the seventh, the Sabbath, He rested from His labours in this valley. While a Muslim will need little convincing from mullah or priest that if there is a paradise on earth, this is it.

From the dawn of history if not the beginning of time, this land has remained like this, a visible manifestation of the Hand of God, touched only sparingly and, for the most part lovingly, by human hand: humans, animals, birds, living in harmony with each other and their surroundings.

Farmers tilling the soil or grazing their flocks and, as there was never too much land for cultivation, large numbers of them joining the army or other services, or seeking their fortune across the seven seas, but determined that in the evening of their lives they would return to the land of their forefathers.

All this is on the verge of being destroyed, by no Mongol horde but, God in Heaven, a huge cement plant (900 crores) being erected by one of Pakistan's biggest corporate entities, the Nishat Group (headed by Mian Mansha), in the very heart of Kahoon next to the village of Khairpur.

As the Mansha people fix cement poles into the ground and string barbed wire around the land they have occupied - using the services of the Punjab Constabulary, the Chakwal police and private guards to keep the frightened and dazed locals at bay - an idyllic valley lost in time has overnight turned into a place torn between fear and desperation.

The road to this infernal project has been paved with false promises. The Mansha people bought some of the land stealthily in connivance with the Chakwal revenue department, many of the mutation documents riddled with inaccuracies and illegalities.

In March came an order under the Punjab Land Acquisition Act allowing for the forcible acquisition of land at nominal prices. The villagers were never for compensation.

Where would they go without the land they and their forefathers had tilled for generations? And how long would their monetary compensation last? But seeing there was no resisting the Mansha juggernaut, fully backed as it was by the administration, they said they would settle for the factory if they were given alternate land.

Nothing coming of this, and the Mansha people relentless in muscling in on the land, the villagers, reduced to desperation, blocked the Kallar Kahar-Choa Saidan Shah Road. Predictably, the police intervened and got the road cleared.

It was an unequal fight from the start, with the villagers outgunned and out-manoeuvred. They were not even on a single platform to begin with, some key villagers dancing to the Mansha tune.

The district administration perhaps played the darkest role of all, keeping the villagers in hope and feeding them on false promises, all the while abetting attempts by the factory people to alter the facts on the ground.

This tale of unequal combat, of suffering and betrayal, is not going unwept because there are plenty of wet eyes in Kahoon. But it is going unsung because the villagers are on their own, their plight unnoticed by the rest of the world.

Local influentials, while generous with sympathy, haven't provided any practical help. Grinding the villagers down is an industrial machine backed up by the might of the Punjab government and the district administration.

If this project gets underway, lifting clay from Chak Khushi and digging up the surrounding hills for their precious haul of limestone, then goodbye to this valley. And as if one cement plant wasn't enough, two more are in the planning stage - one in Khokar Bala, the other a few miles to the east near Wahoola.

Humayan Akhtar, the prime ministerial hopeful and present commerce minister, is said to be behind one of these projects. Already two cement plants - one at Dandot, the other at Gharibwal - have ravaged the fringes of the Kahoon valley, the ecological havoc they have caused resembling the after-effects of a nuclear strike.

And to think that while another is coming up, two more are planned. What have the people of Kahoon done to deserve this? Ah, but isn't cement necessary for development? It is but not at the cost of a fragile environment.

Don't cement plants provide employment? As far as locals are concerned, yes they do to a small number of chowkidars, gardeners, truck drivers and tea-stall vendors. Is this fair compensation for the damage that will be caused to the environment, agriculture and the health of the local population?

Kahoon has produced many senior army officers: brigadiers, major-generals and lieutenant-generals, amongst them two former governors, Amir Gulistan Janjua and Lt Gen Safdar. It has produced senior bureaucrats.

What the hell are all these guys doing? I don't belong to Kahoon, they do. Shouldn't they organize a meeting somewhere, preferably in Islamabad or Rawalpindi, get all military Chakwalis together - and God knows there are enough of them to man the People's Liberation Army - and think about ways and means of protecting their priceless heritage? If they do nothing, their future generations will not forgive them.

These retired bigwigs should request a meeting with the president and tell him what's happening. They should invite him to the valley to show what will happen if the cement people have their way.

Nawaz Sharif in his first avatar as prime minister sold the state cement sector at throwaway prices to the cement lobby. This must count as one of his foulest deeds.

So serious is this matter that all likely remedies should be invoked, even, if it comes to that, the intercession of the first lady, Begum Sehba Musharraf, and the president's mother, who is said to have a soft heart, to consider the fate that awaits one of the fairest places on earth.

Chaudhry Pervez Ellahi, admittedly, is first an industrialist and then chief minister, Punjab. But is too much to ask him to rise above any parochial feelings he may have for a fellow-industrialist and weigh his responsibilities as custodian of the public interest?

Friend Kamran Rasool, Punjab chief secretary, has served in Chakwal and knows the area well. I don't know of his role in this affair but he shouldn't allow his office to be used in the service of big money.

Industrialization is all very well as a catchword and slogan but it must be balanced against the knowledge that Pakistan's industrial class has been woefully short of anything resembling a social conscience.

Save for the Bhutto years, this class has always been cosseted at the expense of other sectors, notably agriculture. What has it produced and given the nation in return? Look at Indian industry and then look at our robber barons and the difference will be obvious.

Why leave Mian Mansha out of this begging bowl? I am sure he is a public-spirited person who will consider the all too likely consequences of this project.

The media, my own tribe, the human rights fraternity, NGOs, all those concerned about the environment should visit Kahoon and see this catastrophe-in-the-making. Anyone concerned can fax the president's military secretary at 051-9211018 or e-mail the Director, Public Relations, at the presidency: immad@isb.comsats.net.pk.