114.349 Mln Saplings Ready For Plantation In Spring Season In KP: Forest Dept

Khyber Pakthunkhwa Forest Department has prepared an inclusive plan to plant over 164.841 million saplings out of which 114.349 million are ready for plantation in spring season 2021 in the province

PESHAWAR, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 13th Jan, 2021 ) :Khyber Pakthunkhwa Forest Department has prepared an inclusive plan to plant over 164.841 million saplings out of which 114.349 million are ready for plantation in spring season 2021 in the province.

Forest Department's official told APP on Wednesday that about 164.841 million seedlings were raised in departmental and private nurseries out of which 114.349 million are ready for plantation in spring season in KP.

To achieve the said target, he said, KP has been divided into three circles including central southern region-I Peshawar, northern forest region-II Abbottabad and Malakand forest region-III Swat where these saplings would be planted with the help of Govt. departments, farmers, NGOs, general public and forest department under an umbrella of 10 billion trees afforestation project (10BTAP).

Central southern region-I Peshawar has been divided into southern forest circle and merged areas (erstwhile Fata) where 59,440,590 plants were raised out of which 39,608,880 were fit for plantation.

In southern forest circle, as many as 19,269,239 plants have been raised out of which 11,833,694 were fit for plantation. Similarly, 40,171,351 plants were raised in merged areas (erstwhile Fata) out of which 27,775,186 were ready for plantation where vast land was available for whopping afforestation.

In northern forest region-II Abbottabad, as many as 61,626,025 plants were raised out of which 44,939,351 were fit for plantation to be achieved with help of local communities, farmers and general public.

While giving breakup of the northern forest region-I Abbottabad, the official said 12,366,182 plants are ready for plantation out of total 15,846,059 in Lower Hazara forest circle, 9,916,270 fit plants out of 15,043,710 plants in Upper Hazara forest circle and 22,656,899 fit plants out of 30,736,256 raised plants in Watershed Management Circle respectively.

In Malakand forest region-III Swat, the official said 43,773,927 plants were raised in departmental and private nurseries out of which 29,800,299 plants were ready for plantations.

Asked about monsoon 2020 plantation, the official said 18.658 million saplings were planted during last moon season in the province with over 80pc survival rate.

As many as 12,791,473 were planted in central southern region-I including 7,749,761 in southern forest circle and 5,041,712 in merged areas (erstwhile Fata) with 86percent survival rate respectively.

Similarly, in northern forest region-II, as many as 4,067,859 saplings including 1,412,064 in Lower Hazara forest circle, 587,445 in Upper Hazara forest circle and 2,068,350 in watershed management circle were planted having 80pc survival rate.

While referring to Malakand forest region-III, the official said a total of 1,798,369 plants were planted during last monsoon including 1,190,919 in Malakand east forest circle and 607,450 in Malakand west forest circle respectively.

He said special focus would be made on afforestation in merged areas where vast land was available in all its seven tribal districts that would help generate employment opportunities for local youth in green sector besides counterbalancing effects of global warming and climate change.

Tribal people, elders and maliks would be involved in carrying out usher plantation besides raising of forest enclosures in merged areas to achieve the target set under 10 BTAP.