Daily Times

KARACHI: In the season of new plantation, last week a private company had cut 540 fully grown Neem trees on Superhighway, which has market value of 5.4million and as environmental value; the city has lost a source of 54000 kilograms of oxygen that these trees were producing annually.

The private company cut these trees to establish cattle market to keep sacrificial animals on sale for the upcoming Eidul Adha. On request of Sindh Forest Department, the official custodian of the trees, police lodged First Information Report (FIR) against the company, but has not arrested anyone until Friday evening.

These trees were planted as a part of a project launched by Sindh government in 2008 on the directives of then President of Pakistan Asif Ali Zardari to promoted Neem tree plantation in Sindh. Sindh government allocated Rs.7 billion to plant 10,000 Neem trees on either sides of Superhighway and National highway.

“After plantation, our department has not only spent huge money to guard these plants but also to water the plantation and these 540 trees that the private company cut last week were around 8 years of age and are considered as fully grown trees,” said Range Forest Officer, Imran Bhutto.

Talking to Daily Times, Bhutto said that each of these trees costs Rs. 10,000, which means all 540 trees worth Rs. 5.4 million.

But the ecologists are considering the environmental value much higher. “Only fully grown tree produce 100 kilograms of oxygen annually and a human breath around 740 kg of oxygen per year,” said Renowned Ecologist and member International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Commission on Ecosystem Management (CEM), Nadeem Mirbahar. The 540 Neem trees that were cut down in Karachi would have covered around 22 acres of land and with carbon sequestration capacity 10, 92000 miles of running cars per year which unfortunately was lost forever. “We also lost a natural oxygen factory which was supporting 75 to 86 adult humans,” said Mirbahar.

Though, Sindh Forest Department has lodged the case, but it has not calculated the wood value and carbon value of these trees. Experts say that 50 percent of all plant species’ biomass is consists of carbon dioxide (CO2) and its emissions are harmful for the atmosphere. “An acre of Neem trees, with 25 trees in each acre, would absorb enough carbon dioxide (CO2) per year equivalent to carbon dioxide (CO2) produced by driving a car for 26000 miles,” said Mirbahar.

According to experts, for 23 million people living in metropolitan city of Karachi, the number of trees for providing enough oxygen to Karachiites required is from 161 to 184 million trees only for urban areas, however, city has only 7 percent of its total area is covered with urban forests, which too comprises on alien species like conocarpus, which is harmful for the city.

Beside, market value and environmental value, these trees has great aesthetic value.

These trees planted along the Superhighway and National Highway, which connects port city and country’s commercial hub, theKarachi city with entire country and anyone entering the city feels good after finding such large number of the trees along the either sides of the road. Renowned forester and Project Director, Sea Intrusion Project (SIP) Government of Sindh, Agha Tahir Hussain Durrani has termed the tree cutting as a disaster for the city. “Karachi is an arid region, where almost everyone is planting conocarpus, in such conditions, cutting at mass level of the slow growing trees like Naeem tree, which are indigenous species and a huge amount of the money was spent, would bring a disaster,” said Durrani. Native to subcontinent, the Neem Tree was officially declared as “Tree of Sindh” in 2010 by government of Sindh.

Karachi suffered deadly heat wave in 2015, which killed more than 1400 people in just two days.

Despite such a huge environmental blunder did by the private firm, the forest department has no plan for the punishment.

“The official of the company has contacted us and they have agreed to pay thw fine and if thet pay the fine, then we shall withdraw the case,” said District Forest Officer Attaullah Shaikh. When asked how much fine forest department will charge for these trees, Shaikh said a committee of his department will decide and it will be approximately RS.5000.