Daily Times

Once enjoying a unique status for its serene evenings and amusing landscape, the capital is fast losing its beauty, tranquillity, biodiversity and habitat due to rapid urbanization in the suburbs of the main city.

Enjoying a unique identity as the only capital in the world with nature and human settlements coexisting simultaneously in an ecosystem, is now helplessly losing its wetlands, forest cover and water resources.

Even rare species like Asian Leopards are under threat of displacement or rather extinction at the hands of urbanization, exploding population, expanding road infrastructure and lack of attention by the city developers towards nature.

“Gone are the days when sitting anywhere in the Capital – any green belt or park – used to amuse residents arousing within them a feeling of love for nature,” said an elderly Muhammad Bashir, who had come to the city for a job in mid-seventies.

“Couple of decades, it was calm and cool with lush green belts, flowers-filled parks, the Lotus Lake, Shakarparian, Damn-e-Koh and the Pir Sohawa – all presently a friendly and natural feeling,” he stated.

“But, now the situation has changed entirely. The serenity has been replaced with blowing horns and unpleasant noise due to massive construction and traffic load and air is adulterated with emissions, making us feel foul like never before,” Bashir said.

The total area of the federal capital is 906 square kilometers with a specified additional area 3,626 square kilometers including the Margalla Hills National Parks in the north and northeast.

The city is divided into five zones and Zone-IV is the largest in terms of area whereas Zone-I is the largest in terms of developed residential area. There is barely any sector of the metropolis that lacks trees or any open space like greenbelts or parks. But, with the population influx, the roads are falling short of traffic and green belts are littered with waste and in some places drying up due to improper attention.

The city also receives a whooping 1143 millimeters of average rainfall per annum but still, it is grappling with the issue of water scarcity because it has to employ the resource initially established for 200,000 people, as to now for over two million people.

The International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Pakistan Council of Research on Water Resources (PCRWR) and the Capital Development Authority (CDA) jointly executed a rainwater recharging wells project to replenish the aquifer of the capital that had dropped to an alarming level.

The initiative in its pilot phase injected almost 1.8 million gallons of rainwater into the aquifer that was drying up due to massive water drilling by households.

“The water courses passing through scientifically developed F-6 and F-7 sectors were once the ideal habitats for the most trafficked mammal Pangolins,” said an official of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board.

“We received several calls by residents reporting the presence of Pangolins in these areas that were rescued by the Board workers,” the official said, mentioning that Margalla Hills is also home to leopards, jackals, barking deer and many other elusive animals, birds and insects.” “Then there is a variety of plants that ensure healthy ambience and much-needed oxygen for the capital residents,” he added. “All these plant and animal species contribute to a naturally rich ecosystem of Margalla Hills National Park.”

With the rising population pressure, the civic authorities are compelled to widen roads and launch new residential sectors with massive construction activity to facilitate the populace.

Recently, Margalla Avenue has been developed as an alternate route to avoid traffic jams on the way to entering the capital, and enter the capital from residential areas like Taxila, Sangjani and Wah Cantt to avoid usual traffic jams.

The Avenue will be entering near Sangjani to travel all along from Shah Allah Ditta, D-12 sector and will culminate at Margalla Avenue denuding the forest cover and creating a fissure between the natural habitat as it will be barricaded from both sides.

According to the Capital Development Authority officials, the road infrastructure was important and crucial as the population had increased exponentially with over a million vehicles registered in the capital.

“Therefore, if only one-third of these vehicles travel on the roads, the existing infrastructure falls quite insufficient to bear the traffic load. That’s why we need new roads,” the officials argued.

However, they pleaded that environmental setbacks could be mitigated through the plantation and other interventions suggested by the experts.

The expressway of Islamabad which had swathes of towering trees making this leading thoroughfare a majestic pathway, is also plagued with lowering tree cover and mounting traffic load resulting in average temperature rise and deteriorating air quality for residents of twin cities.

The CDA environment wing reveals that thousands of decades-old trees are removed to construct a road or develop a specific area or settlement and saplings planted in response, could take decades to become a real substitute.

Now, if the development is much needed, the ecosystem and habitat are needed the most. Therefore, the authorities must create a balance ensuring that the ecosystem and habitat are not ruined in the name of development and citizens are not barred from their right to breathe in cleaner air and live a healthy life.