Cabbage
Now that the climate change reality is hitting hard throughout the country, people have belatedly woken up to the indisputable fact; with a country-wide tree cover of just two percent, planting trees is an absolute must. Hand in hand with this realisation comes chaos!
Concerned citizens have, on the one hand, been going mad planting trees. On the other, they are racing around, with axes aimed at the conocarpus. Their sense and sensibility seems lost somewhere along the way.
It’s advisable to think things through before acting.
Planting trees in disregard to planting seasons will only be counter-productive
First and foremost, the importance of planting seasons cannot be stressed enough. It doesn’t matter what some YouTube guru says; in Pakistan, the reality is that planting seasons matter. It is pointless to take a young tree, direct from its nursery pot, dig a hole, stick it in, water it once or twice and expect it to survive, even thrive, in extreme heat when everything around — buildings, roads, pavements — is too hot to touch. It is like transplanting a human being from the cool security of an air-conditioned office directly into the middle of the Thar Desert at noon and expecting them to be perfectly comfortable, to adapt and survive.
Planting seasons have evolved over hundreds, maybe even thousands, of years and, although they are, as a result of climate change, shifting, we still have two planting seasons here in Pakistan: the first one during the summer monsoon — roughly mid-July to mid-September — and the second during the receding monsoon period — approximately mid-January to mid-March. It is during these two seasons that planting/transplanting trees should be undertaken if the said saplings/trees are to have a chance of surviving. And remember, they will only survive with aftercare, such as regular watering for the first two to three years. Even drought-tolerant species need regular watering for their first two years or so — they are not drought-tolerant until fully established.
Having explained the importance of planting seasons, let’s move on to indigenous tree species versus ‘exotics’ or recently-imported ones.
Indigenous species of trees are those which are native to the country. They have evolved, over countless generations, to thrive in this climate and soil conditions, with different species having adapted to different regions of our hugely diverse land- scape; pine trees in the northern mountains and mangoes in the plains being prime examples. These indigenous tree species have evolved in conjunction with native animals, birds and insects which, in turn, have evolved to depend on indigenous trees for shelter and essential sustenance.