Daily Times

The recent forest fires on the Margalla Hills, which broke out on Monday, exposed the authorities’ lack of preparedness to deal with such disasters. Reportedly, the fire spread over ten to 12 acres on the first day (May 31) before the military was able to bring the situation under control using helicopters and Bambi buckets. This was the third forest fire to break out on the Margalla Hills in May. A Capital Development Authority (CDA) spokesperson has commented on the incident saying forest fires are expected in this season. But CDA cannot escape from the charges of negligence since there had been another fire in April, which took two days to put out. The April incident should have been taken as a serious warning and the relevant departments should have been prepared to deal with the fires that broke out on May 31.

Regardless, the damage has now been done. Many of the trees lost will take decades to regrow. This is a terrible tragedy. According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), only 2.2 percent of Pakistan currently has forest cover, in comparison to the United Nations’ recommended 25 percent. Last March, experts warned that if deforestation doesn’t slow down in Pakistan and depleted forests aren’t restored, Pakistan’s forest cover might disappear within 50 years. This will be an environmental catastrophe resulting in more heatwaves, floods and droughts. Combined with other issues like air pollution, climate change and water scarcity the lack of forest cover will become an environmental calamity of gargantuan proportions. Furthermore, once this has happened, there will be no way to fix it.

As such, the authorities must act immediately to prevent such mishaps in the future. As far as the recent incidents on Margalla hills are concerned, the authorities must make bringing the culprits behind the setting of the fire to task. People were seen setting fires in Daman-i-Koh picnic area and cases have been registered against unidentified individuals. Most have pointed to Pakistan’s infamous timber mafia as the likely suspects, saying that they set fires in Margalla hills for not being allowed to conduct their nefarious activities or to hide the evidence of logging. It is high time action is taken against this criminal network on a priority basis. The CDA officials who are tasked with environmental management should be brought to book.  *

Published in Daily Times, June 4^th 2018.