PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa forestry department is working to plant more than 500,000 trees over 10,000 kanals of land in Spin Khak area of Nowshera district as part of its peri-urban forestry initiative, says an official.

The massive tree plantation in Spin Khak area was launched by Chief Minister Sohail Afridi on August 14.

On Sept 6, Peshawar forest division again planted at least 50,000 plants at the site as part of its Defence Day Plantation drive.

Divisional forest officer of Peshawar Mohammad Shakeel told Dawn that the Spin Khak plantation would cover 10,000 kanals of land by March next year.

Massive plantation drive to cover 10,000 kanals of land in Nowshera

He said that the massive plantation was being carried out under the multi-billion Peshawar Revitalisation Plan.

“We are going to plant 550,000 trees at this peri-urban location and take care of them for the next four years,” he said.

Mr Shakeel said that the local community had provided its land for the initiative, which would be handed over to it four years later.

He said the department would plant indigenous species of trees like kikar, sheesham and beri in Spin Khak, while in order to ensure sustainability of the forestry initiative, over 20,000 olive plants as well as black pepper plants would also be planted as the area was suitable for the cultivation of both plants.

“The cultivation of these plants will create financial incentives for the community to be invested in the sustainability of the forestry initiative,” he said.

The official also said that patches of fruit-bearing trees, including those of pomegranate, jujube, apricot and plum, would be planted in the area. He said that the department was working to construct two reservoirs to harvest rainwater for the initiative and those dams would also help raise the water table in the area.

Mr Shakeel said the department was also in the process of setting up two solar tubewells to provide water for the plantations in Spin Khak.

“Work on the installation of solar tube wells was likely to start in the next week,” he said.

The official said that over a period of time, the plants would be acclimatised for survival in natural conditions.

Noorul Amin, a member of the local community, said that they had signed an agreement with the forestry department to provide their land for the plantation.

He said that the plantation would greatly benefit the area as on one hand, such a large plantation would enhance the area’s weather and on the other, plantation of species like olives would economically benefit the rural community.

Mr Amin also said that the community would work as labourers at the plantation and would also have other jobs in the project.

“We are going to extend every kind of support for this project,” he said.

Liaquat, another resident of the Spin Khak, said the plantation area was uninhabited where the residents had set up a committee to work out the modalities of the project with the department as the land was jointly owned by them.

Last year, the forestry department planted over 45,000 trees in Jabori Khattak area, which stands some distance from Spin Khak.

Both Spin Khak and Jabori Khattak are located around 30 minutes’ drive from the Ghari Chandan urban forest, the largest urban forestry project in the history of the province that is spread over several kilometres of land and set up between 2014 and 2019 under the Billion Tree Tsunami Afforestation Programme.

The forestry department officials said Ghari Chandan had started giving financial dividends to the local community as the coppicing of eucalyptus trees last year generated Rs12 million.

They said in the current year, it was expected to generate Rs60 million from tree coppicing.

The officials said 80 per cent of the funds went to the community, while the rest were utilised to plant more trees and hire forest guards.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2026