KOHAT: The forest department on Monday started planting saplings over the 20,000 kanals of land in Kata Kanri area vacated by the revenue department from illegal occupants on Monday.

According to a statement issued here, thousands of trees would be planted on the large area and tankers would be used to water the saplings till they grew up.

Though the people have been vacated from the land, their houses have not been razed as the land could only be used for plantation of trees. The residents also did not protest or showed any resistance to the plantation drive.

During his visit to the area, deputy commissioner Khalid Ilyas directed that the plants should be cultivated on the large plain land, including the surrounding mountains.

It is to mention here that the district administration vacated more 352 kanals of forest land on Monday in addition to more than 19,000 kanals recovered a week ago in Kata Kanri area occupied by the people since 1962.

The revenue department officials said the whole land measured up to 28,000 kanals, which was property of the forest department.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2018