ALTHOUGH we Pakistanis plant trees, there is no maintenance. The Germans have been celebrating national festival of trees since 1952. In Israel, the Jewish calendar has set aside the 19th day of January as festival of the trees. In Japan, the national tree festival is celebrated in the first week of April, known as ‘Greening Week’. This programme is undertaken with great zeal.

Sweden has already plentiful of forests and the ‘Week of Forest’ is celebrated to remind people of their obligation to the spread of forest. Similarly, India annually celebrates a tree festival called ‘Vana Mahot Sava’ on a very large scale.

Although in Pakistan our forest department is doing its best to spread greenery, this dream of a ‘Green Pakistan’ can come true only when all segments of society — NGOs, activists, and the forest department — join hands to make this campaign a success.

Japan has 63pc of its area under trees, Sweden 53pc and India 22pc, Pakistan has only five per cent area under forest. The Chinese after suffering greatly on this count started planting trees in 1957. Then ‘Great Green Wall’ which is a huge shelter belt extending over 1.6m hectares serving as a barrier against the Gobi desert. This is an eye-opener for Pakistan.

Lala Fazal Ahmed Belaee

Hyderabad

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2017