Punjab Chief Minister Punjab Sardar Usman Buzdar has said that the Parks & Horticulture Authority (PHA) Lahore will grow Asia's largest Miyawaki urban forest over an area of a hundred Kanal in China Park near Saggian Bridge by planting 112500 indigenous trees and shrubs.
In a statement issued on Thursday, he said such urban forests will also be developed at 15 other places in Lahore city to grow a total of 292500 trees.
While giving the details, Usman Buzdar said 58000 trees will be planted over an area of 50 Kanal in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park while another 58000 trees will be grown over 50 Kanal in Township. 13500 trees will also be planted at 12 Kanal land of township nursery, he added.
Similarly, Miyawaki urban forests will also be developed at C-Block Sabzazar, Ganj Sarkar Sabzazar, Qaddafi Park Gulshan-e-Ravi, Saggian Interchange, Rustam Park Gulshan-e-Ravi, Karim Park Golbagh near Data Darbar, side 1 and 2 of Mahmood Booti, Green Town, Mustafa Bhatti Park Township, Kashmir Park and Khalid Butt Park Township, he stated.
The chief minister regretted that the historic city of Lahore was defaced in past tenure by raising huge jumbled structures of concrete and irresponsible cutting of trees further devastated the environment. Past rulers' corruption resulted in increasing political pollution while their policies compounded the environmental degradation, he maintained.
He remarked that the lack of forests was resulting in environmental degradation and extensive tree-plantation drive will help to overcome smog and pollution. The 10 billion tree tsunami programme is a game-changer initiative to make Pakistan clean and green and the government will overcome smog and environmental degradation by planting more and more trees, concluded the chief minister.
