KARACHI: Sindh Chief Minister Syed Murad Ali Shah on Friday launched ‘Spring tree plantation campaign 2018’ in 29 districts of the province by planting a palm tree at CM House, which was one of the 500,000 saplings planted across the province on Friday.

During the campaign, which would last till May 15, in civil divisions of Sindh 20 million trees would be planted, including 10,375 in Karachi division.

In addition to plantation of 20 million trees, the chief minister also directed the forest department to launch anti-encroachment drive against the grabbers of forest land and plant trees on its vacant land.

The chief minister issued this directive while speaking to forests secretary Asif Hyder Shah, chief conservator Aijaz Nizamani and other officials of the department, who were present at the tree plantation launching ceremony.

Asif Hyder Shah briefing the chief minister said that the target of tree plantation given by him to the department would be achieved.

The campaign, he said, aimed at planting mainly local tree species saplings at public and community places such as educational institutions, bus stops, roadsides, etc.

The Sindh Education Foundation-run schools have also been involved actively all over the province in the campaign, he added.

Division-wise tree planting targets for the days are as follows:

Karachi Civil Division has a target of 10,375,000 saplings, but on Friday 165,000 were planted.

Hyderabad Civil Division has a target of 3,500,000 plants and 100,000 were planted on Friday.

Mirpurkhas Civil Division has a target of 900,000 plants against which 15,000 were planted on Friday.

Shaheed Benazirabad Civil Division has a target of 1,750,000 saplings and 55,000 were planted on Friday.

Larkana Civil Division has a target of 1,875,000 saplings and 85,000 were planted on Friday.

Sukkur Civil Division has a target of 1,600,000 saplings and 80,000 were planted on Friday.

In this way during spring 2018, a total of 20,000,000 trees will be planted while around 500,000 were planted on Friday.

The chief minister also emphasised planting and protection of trees and forests in all ecological regions of Sindh, ranging from coastal mangrove ecosystem to riverine forests, and sustainable use of land resources in barrage areas of the province.

Murad Ali Shah appreciated mangrove-planting ‘success’ of the Sindh forest department spanning over the past two decades and directed the department to come up with a dynamic strategy for forest rehabilitation in riverine and irrigated plantation areas of the province.

He directed the chief conservator of forests to spearhead the anti-encroachment campaign on forest land and ensure planting of forests on vacated land in order to prevent the recurrence of encroachment on the retrieved area.

Published in Dawn, February 17th, 2018