Daily Times

LARKANA: As many as 2500 saplings will be planted and 50,000 plants will be distributed among people in Larkana as the part of a day-long national massive tree plantation campaign titled “Plant for Pakistan” going to be held on Sunday.

Each person will be given 50 saplings for planting against CNIC copy to improve environment and eradicate pollution.

Larkana Social Forest (LSF) Officer Arshad Kamario told media today that under Prime Minister’s 5-year Program to make Pakistan environmental-friendly country by planting more and more trees, as many as 1.5 million saplings will be planted in Pakistan between September 2 to 5.

He said LSF will distribute 50,000 plants to the general public free of cost and every person will be given 50 trees for planting against copy of CNIC. “Frequent cutting of trees on large scale caused fewer rains due to which Pakistan faced hot weather and water shortage,” he added.

He said forests have become dry due to water scarcity in Indus River and have also been occupied by influential persons which should be retrieved. He said Sindh government has therefore decided to take help of Rangers to get the forest lands back from the habitual land grabbers in the province. He said 15000 acres of forest land has been forcibly occupied in Larkana Forest Range, which will be obtained back soon where Babri seeds will be sown.

Arshad further stated that under urban forest program, trees will be grown in all schools, roads, streets and government buildings. He claimed that large number of Neem trees have been planted throughout Larkana district, but people are either burning or cutting them due to lack of awareness which should be declared a crime.  He also demanded proper laws for saving trees, environment.