GILGIT, July 20: The Northern Areas forest department has decided to engage local communities living in the vicinity of forests to make sure that deforestation does not take place.

A senior official of the regional forest, Suleman Wali, said that they had agreed to recruit 80 forest guards from the communities and each guard will be paid Rs5,500 per month with the responsibility to monitor and prevent the illegal cutting of trees.

He said that it was difficult for the forest department’s small number of guards to reach forests to prevent loggers from cutting trees. However, he hoped that after participation of local communities and involvement of local forest guards through employment, the task of forest protection would be carried out satisfactorily.