An elderly gardener has been offering saplings of different flowering and fruit plants to people in Peshawar with an objective to free the environment of toxic pollution and raise awareness among masses of the significance of growing plants for life on earth.

Sufi Pir Misal Shah Naqeebi, 69, a resident of Shabqadar and a staunch devotee of Rahman Baba, has been running a charity nursery for seven years now along the bank of a canal in Gulbahar No 2, Peshawar, with the aim to turn Peshawar into the city of flowers again and also to free the environment of pollution filled with poisonous gases and other pollutants.

According to Mr Naqeebi, he has distributed around 30,000 fruit and flowering plants among people since 2016 and also gifted away about 2,000 saplings to a government high school for hearing impaired in Gulbahar No 2.

He said that it was everybody’s duty to plant trees to save the environment from degradation.

Mr Naqeebi was born with love for nature and his parents motivated him further to take care of plants and to never indulge in polluting environment.

He said after completing education he joined the education department and set two targets in life; to educate students to protect the environment and to keep relating himself to spiritualism.

“I am not doing anything new. I graduated in Physical Education and it was my duty to impart physical, mental and spiritual training to my students. I also trained them on clean and green environment. I got retirement in 2013 as a physical education director and have penned a book in Urdu on the hazards of environmental pollution and distributed its free copies to schools in and around Peshawar city,” he said.

The elderly gardener recalled that in fact the canal bank was an even place where heroin addicts would gather and also land grabbers tried to encroach on it.

He said that after retirement from service he along with his followers planned to kill two birds with one stone; began levelling the uneven mound along the canal and also launched Sufi teaching to the addicts so they could give up the bad habit.

It took him three years to prepare the land for plantation and then turned it into a charity nursery. He said that his efforts bore fruit.

He said that he had also hired an expert to guide him on planting trees, especially the flowering and fruit bearing plants. He said that he had set up two greenhouses and arranged for water supply with his own expenses.

“I got enough experience and then guided my own volunteers to grow Red Rose, Arabian Jasmine, White Jasmine, Yellow Jasmine, white, yellow and purple cestrum, Tulip, Plum, China Rose, Oleander and Coral tree.

“The project became so successful that people from across Khyber Pakhtunkhwa turned up for getting specimens of plants. I gift the specimens only to teachers and students with instructions to take care of the plants and make their environment green and clean,” he explained.

Prof Khalid Khan, an expert on plantation, told this scribe that plants were rightly called the lungs of environment because human lungs oxygenated bodies while plants oxygenated the air. He said that teachers and religious clerics should instill the spirit of green environment and raise awareness among students of the plantation of fruit and flowering plants.

“Plants and trees reduce pollution to a great extent and it is quite true that green can clean,” he said.

Arif Gul, 40, a volunteer working with Mr Naqeebi said that eight years ago he along with four other drug addicts used to come to the place, now a charity nursery, and consume heroin.

He said that the elderly gardener compelled them to give up drugs and also made them to work in the garden.

“Since then we have been reconnected with our families and we also pick out time to help our spiritual guide. We found a spiritual solace in spreading the message of green and clean environment,” Mr Gul maintained.

Mr Naqeebi said that the canal bank was a government’s property and a few days ago the officials of Peshawar Development Authority visited the charity nursery and encouraged him to continue his mission.

“The officials provided two young gardeners and also pledged that they would build a running track round the garden where the city residents would enjoy the run,” he said.

The elderly gardener said that he had planned to spread his message of pollution-free environment to other districts, including Charsadda, Nowshera and Mardan where his old students would open similar charity nurseries.

He said the message of great Rahman Baba too was ‘Kar Da Gulo Karra, Che Seema De Gulzar Shee’ (Grow flowers so that your area may get enough greenery). “I would continue to spread Baba’s universal message,” he pledged.

Prof Rahman Ali, an educationist in Peshawar, said that the charity nursery was a wonderful idea and the education department in collaboration with other relevant departments should bound schools and colleges to submit an annual report regarding the green environment and also encourage students and teachers to float the idea of green and clean Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Mr Ali suggested that cash awards and commendation certificates should be given to those students and faculty members who participated in such healthy activities. He said that a group of students should be asked to take care of a particular part of the school garden or plants.

“At least one school assembly should be dedicated to debates where students, experts and guest speakers should demonstrate or deliver sermons on the significance of pollution-free environment. Practical activities should be arranged in which plants, flowers and air should talk to humans through a dramatic presentation or storytelling,” Mr Ali advised.

Published in Dawn, September 22nd, 2019