Sir: Forests play an important role for the development of a country. They are considered as a natural resource. Account to the experts, forests should cover at least 25 percent of the total area of a country, but unfortunately in Pakistan, only 4.5 percent of the total area is covered with forests . Anyway, deforestation is a main environmental concern in the world; it includes the cutting down, burning and destructing of forests. The forests are destroyed at a petrifying rate to supply men with lumber, pasture land and farm land. Pakistan is not a self-sufficient in wood-based production and spends billion of rupees on import of wood and wood-based products. Pakistanis forest resources are shrinking at a rate of one percent which will have dreadful effects on the people of Pakistan. Accordingly to some sources, around 32 percent people of Pakistan live in urban areas and of the current growth rate of urbanization is kept, Pakistan urban population will surpass the rural are by 2030. So, stop deforestation and start growing plants. HANIFA KHALID Turabt Published in Daily Times, November 12th 2018.