A City of Gardens

its not coming to an end.
As quoted, many a times, trees have been the target and mostly the first one during a conquest, but still the facet of lahore prevailed.

Although it seems to be vanishing, the culture of trees, the city would still retain its aura it has developed all this time associated with the plantations.

If Government cannot do, someone has to do out of sheer passion. The maalee has to be paid and the services claimed are reciprocal to what he earns thus the result.

The rich can abandon to have american grass and instead move ahead to get some useful trees in the age of infancy, the seedlings from Horticulture authority to plan in there grassy lawns.
This little move can bring out an effect that would again bring back the old lahore.

All is needed is an effort from the passionate side.

When it comes to lootings of heritage buildings, landscapes and trees, It all boils down to black money and cats are coming out of bags now.

Here is what, Daily dawn reported about recent allotment of 39 lacs (3.9) million rupees for the study of Lahore canal bank trees problem, please note the clever use of words by ``officials`` and it seems that money is sitting with them and they are desperate to loot a big chunk of it.

Dawn reports on july 19, 2006:

Rs3.9m for Canal Road remodelling feasibility study

LAHORE, July 18: A sum of Rs3.981 million has been sanctioned to conduct a feasibility study for the Canal Road remodelling to ease traffic pressure.

An official announcement said on Tuesday “realising the current and future traffic problems on the canal route, it has been decided to conduct a feasibility study for remodelling the road from Dharampura underpass to Thoker Niaz Baig to release traffic blockade on permanent basis which is posing a serious environmental threat.”.......

............“A misunderstanding among some sections of the society that hundreds of trees will be cut down during this expansion of work is not correct. It has been decided that during the course, all stakeholders, citizens, organisations, NGOs, experts and media will be consulted and taken into confidence.”

An average government officer costs about 20 million (2 crores) to tax payers, and if one includes free real estate plots, perks and haram income ( uper ki amdani) then this figure reaches to several more crores.

Why giving 39 lacs of poor people`s money to consultants, when we have army of government engineers and experts on our pay rolls and they keep on gossiping, back biting and discussing and awaiting expensive real estate plots during duty hours??

I make following points which will help to understand and fight this case against internal termites and enemies of Pakistan.

1- There are lot of ``fruit -wallas`` and hawkers who block canal road of Lahore, do we know how many of them are without permit or how many of them are Afghan refugees?? Who is making billions of dollars in the name of Afghan refugees?? and when brother of Maulana FazalurRehman is commissioner Afghan refugees then we can understand the reasons behind the destruction of Pakistani cities especially Abbottabad, Haripur, Lahore and Peshawar.

2- Always keep this in your mind that illegal and without permit ``fruit-wallas`` or fruit hawkers survive and dump garbage in all cities of Pakistan in connivance with the corrupt officials of TMAs, Municipal committees, cantt boards etc.

Just sit there hidingly one day and notice how many crates of fruits ( and cash money also) , inspectors and custodians of government organisations like TMAs , get from those ``fruitwallas``.

2- In a report submitted to supreme court of Pakistan, well wishers and ``officials`` cunningly mentioned slowing down of traffic on the canal road,following are their clever words:
``The PDWP was further informed that the road attracted a large number of motorists because of underpasses but the two lanes could not accommodate the rush. During peak hours traffic speed had fallen from 55 kms an hour to 25 km an hour. “This results in excessive vehicular emission creating a dangerous level of environmental pollution.”

Do our experts know that speed limit in urban areas of Europe and USA is between 30 and 50 km/hour.
During rush hours it falls down to 5-10 km/hour but no body ever talked about chopping down of road side trees or to keep on expanding roads.

Main reason behind slow speed limits in urban area is that if a vehicle hits a child or a human being/animal etc at low speed, then they will survive the impact.

In this age of rising tempretures and global warming,Communities go for alternative means like,discouraging one man one car practice, encouraging van/car pool, natural gas driven buses, transit trains, bicycles, walking etc.

3- War against euclayptus trees is also being exploited by commission/bribe hungry engineers/planners and army of TEPA , PEPA, CDA, CONTRACTA, CONSULTA, EXPERTA, etc.

The type of euclayptus which is growing gracefully in Islamabad and along canal road of Lahore is a better and evolved type and it is known as ``citidora`` type with tall and straight trunks, and it is extensively used all over the world for landscaping and urban forestry.

It is true that, Euclayptus consumes twice the water than ``jamun`` or ``mango`` tree, but it also releases twice the water in air, which helps in transpiration, i.e., seed for the formation of clouds and rainfall etc.

Euclayptus oil is used in medicine, and it purifies the air and kills harmful germs also.

Instead of clear cutting euclayptus trees, only unhealthy, shabby or wild kind of this tree should be cut and replaced with indigenous heavenly trees like ``pipal`` , ``banyan`` , ``jamun``, ``mango``, ``desi kikar`` , ``phulai``, ``persian lilac or dharek``, ``shesham or rosewood`` etc.

At the end few lines from the daily dawn of july23, 2006 in which lootings in bright day light, trickiness and deception of ``feasibility report experts`` and government officials is mentioned,

Daily Dawn of july 23,2006 writes about the arrest of a government Engineer:

The complainant further alleged that the contractor, in connivance with TMA officials and the engineering branch, had received over Rs10 million payment, but carried out no work at all.

The ACE additional director himself conducted an inquiry and visited the site and found the allegations true. He ordered the registration of a case against TMO Shaikh Ziaul Haq, XEN Shahid Bilal, sub-engineer Shaukat Ali, contractor Chaudhry Abdul Rasheed and others.


Today`s dawn also writes about the fake matric certificate of Jamaat Islami`s naib nazim (government custodian) of distrct Swabi, NWFP.

This is just a tip of the ice berg, are we going to survive such internal cancers?? do we deserve any geniune respect in the eyes of God, or among league of nations??

Garden of Pakistan got looted by our money hungry internal enemies and white collared dacoits and naked cities, barren mountains and empty landscapes are telling the story.

If this pattern prevails, then in coming years we will find ourselves in a complete mess, and our basic existence will become difficult due to lack of greenery,noise and air pollution etc.

I quote a powerful letter by a concerned and civilized citizen of Pakistan and this letter got published in the daily Nation of july 21,2006.

This letter will bring tremendous awareness for our esteemed readers.

Depleting forests of Indus

A tree is the nature`s gift for mankind. Not only do trees keep the atmosphere clean and healthy but the mature trees also add to local humidity through transpiration (the process by which plants release water through their leaves) and thus ensure rainfall. In the water cycle, moisture evaporates into the atmosphere forming rain clouds before being precipitated as rain that falls onto the forests again. The forests, therefore, play a vital role in regulating regional climate by providing the base for continuity of the water cycles.
The keen interest shown by the conscientious cities dwellers particularly by inviting attention of apex court for stopping the pillage of the Muree hills forests and Lahore Canal trees is inestimable. However, imagine the predicament of the vast tracts of forests in the countryside that have suffered devastation at the hands of ruthless ``humans``.
Not very long ago, the both banks of river Indus in Sindh had thick forests spread over right from Kashmore to Karachi. These forests were not only our main source of monsoon rain but also served as a safety valve against the annual floods beyond protective dykes. The fertility of soil in these forests was proverbial; it provided livelihood to millions having their permanent abode there. These woodlands were sanctuaries of a variety of wild life, flora and fauna, and a great source of livestock pastures. With the passage of time these forests have been completely destroyed by the influential lands lords who got these virgin lands leased to their family members on government rates for Katcha in perpetuity. The forest department whose primary function is to protect these natural woodlands either remained a silent spectator or collaborated with the predators in their campaign of deforestation. Look at the state of affairs now that from Kashmor to Karachi, we have no trees except small patches of shrubbery not worth mentioning. The invaluable lands are now in the possession of influential as ``Ketties`` in their names. -DR. ALI AKBAR M. DHKAN, Karachi, via e-mail, July 17.

This indeed is a very powerful argument for keeping Lahore greener. A very well written and quite persuasive essay. Thank you Nadeem Akram Sahib.

Date Palms? Are you kidding me? No way. What’s next? Camels?

Thanks for raising these very important issues, sir. I have been (privately) speaking out against the destruction of Lahore`s indigenous trees for the last ten years. I left Lahore five years ago, and now it seems to be a different city from the city of my childhood.

In my opinion both the government as well as private citizens are responsible for the destruction of indigenous trees in Lahore. The government has not made any effort to plant native species of trees in the newly developed areas of Lahore. As the writer points out, the British planted native trees in the areas of Lahore they developed. To this day they remain the least polluted areas of the city. And the temperature difference on a hot summer day is also noticeable. After the British left, no such exercise was undertaken. Areas like Defence, Cavalry Ground, Faisal Town, Iqbal Town etc, that were developed two to three decades ago, are totally empty of trees. If only the developers had had the same foresight as the ``colonial masters``, today these areas would have been green, cool and less polluted.

Private citizens are equally to blame for this. In an effort to look ``fashionable``, ``modern`` or ``cool``, Lahore`s affluent citizens (the so-called ``elite) started planting non-native trees in their lawns and gardens. These trees are totally un-suited to Lahore`s climate and have no beneficial effects.

The result of all this is that Lahore has become a hideous concrete jungle, dotted with date palms, and ashoks (ultay and seedhay). The Lahore of neems, sheeshams, keekars, talis and jamans is no more.

nice to see some thought and research put behind the greenery issue

its sad how the growth of population in our civilization is effecting nature. gone are the days where long and barbaric wars, famines and natural catastrophies used to kill of large chunks of the population.

time to start exploring....this planet is going beyond capacity!

Re: # 2
All lanagebazi. =All Lafagebazi

THanks Mr.NA for article its feels sad to read all degradation set in core of city landscaping.
Thanks for loss of ``peepul trees ``. These are large tall growing trees slowly disappearing from city landscape. We cab build highways if money is poured can be one in year. But trees vanashing will take century to attain those majestic size and grandure is sad fact.
I liked Peepul trees as they are singing trees. As evening breeze starts the leaves start moving and make musical rythamic sound of leaves moving and always liked those chanted trees.

People are important than trees so they will disappear. Once gone is gone. I know a person real english ( White will visit pakistan and live in our five star hotel and tipp also big way)who studed at Oxford or Cambridge college and had pictures of garden of that college. They were beautiful and asked him how they such beautiful job man said Mr. Madani it is not easy job they are perfecting those gardens for last 800 years so they look so beautiful.
What a great hertage of english nation, I always think white man has social appreciation and ethics , brown or dark man when he sees garden grass a real punjabi agricultural at hearts thinks of garden as fodder for his she buffollow. So that is what is happening in lahore .
As population is growing fast and people need food, shelter, trees will be slaughterd. Only way to save trees is have family planning like china. There should be no moderation. Actually increasing population will deviour anything they need for them. Present things may look better after some time. I do not belive in miracles so things will go down slowly but surely. I think people do not care about trees so thay can be wiped out, we are crazy people honestly, people get boiled and burn and kill people and destroy properties of ``other people`` for some cartoons but they never get angry about over breeding or cutting trees. All lanagebazi.

A powerful article,

nicely written,

very profound and eye opening for those who have healthy souls and deep love and regard for their historic region.

Nadeem Akram please write more like this.Thank you.