Daily Times

KARACHI: Pakistan People Party (PPP) lead Sindh government has made all the arrangements to set new record of planting mangroves on Feb 15, Daily Times learnt on Thursday.

Sindh forest department would plant mangroves in River Indus delta in Thatta district, the last district on River Indus and would break its own previous record set in 2013 when the department planted over 750,000 saplings at Kharo Chan, Thatta in single day.

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari broke the story of record of planting mangroves on his twitter account.

Bilawal has said that his party will beat the world record by planting record most mangroves in a single day on February 15.

In his message on twitter he said, “Did you know Sindh beat the Guinness world record of world record for most mangroves planted in a single day back in 2009? We broke the record again in 2013 by planting 750,000! Now on Feb 15 we are going to try and beat the world record again”.

This is not first time that Sindh forest department is going to plant mangroves on massive scale but also in 2009, the department had set a record by planting 541,176 saplings at Keti Bundar, Thatta. This record was toppled later that year by India; however, in 2013 the department broke the record of India by planting 750,000 saplings in one day.

Fifth largest in the world, the delta of magnificent River Indus was much bogger than Bangladesh’s Sunderbans forests, but due to the upstream diversion of river water by construction of dams and barrages, the Indus delta is not on the verge of extinction.

Pakistan’s lifeline, the River Indus, before meeting Arabian Sea, divides in to 17 major branches and each on is called a creek and once in the past when river flows with full swing and gusty water of the river was pushing the seawater back, there were the thick forests of mangroves. According to the experts, the mangroves need a mixture of freshwater and seawater for survival. But due to the reducing flows in the river, the mangroves are shrinking drastically.

A research study of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) disclosed that mangroves forests were spread over 600,000 hectares back in the 1930s, but due to water shortage in the downstream, these forests reduced to 96,000 hectares in 2005.

Sindh government committed to increase the area of mangroves. Talking to Daily Times, Media consultant, Sindh chief minister House, Rasheed Channa said mangrove forests are important as they protect the coastal belt from sea intrusion and also provide economy for local communities.

“This record of plantation of mangrove sample is a healthy activity and chief minister Syed Murad Ali Shah is personally interested in this activity and also Sindh government will plant more mangroves in coming days in Sindh’s coastal belt,” said Channa.

Published in Daily Times, January 13^th 2018.