Punjab has launched an extensive tree planting campaign under the initiative “Plant of the Principal Minister for Pakistan”, with the aim of planting trees more than 48,368 acres of land in the province.
The Punjab main minister, Maryam Aurengzeb, declared that, under the leadership of Prime Minister Maryam Nawaz, the goal has been established to plant 42.5 million offspring.
For fiscal year 2024-25, the plan is to plant 7,361 million trees in more than 8,496 acres of land. For this purpose, 1.8 billion rupees have been assigned in the current fiscal year, with 1,085 billion rupees that have already been spent, which represents 60% of the total budget.
In addition, he mentioned that during the spring season, 5,966 million trees would be planted in more than 6,637 acres of land. Tree planting is carried out in more than 300 locations in Punjab, including Lahore, Kasur, Gujranwala, Gujrat, Murree, Rawalpindi, Sargodha and Muzaffarrhrh.
The project includes a variety of trees, such as Moringa, Pine, Neem, Acacia, Shisham, Mustaza, Bakaian, Semal and Arjun, along with trees that support fruits. These will not only reduce air pollution, but will also improve the environmental beauty of the region.
The project, which is expected to cost a total of 8 billion rupees, aims at green forests, riberies, road edges, the Pothhahar region, Murree and the areas of the desert. To date, 2.73 million young trees have been planted in 4,000 acres of land, and the project is quickly progressing.
Maryam Aurengzeb emphasized that these efforts are not only crucial for environmental protection, but will also lay the bases for a greener and healthier punis for future generations.
Meanwhile, the Punjab government will establish parks and horticulture authorities (PHA) at the district level to create a “green punjab”.
These authorities will focus on eradicating Smog pollution, renewing the old parks and building new ones, with a financing of billions of rupees. The PHA will operate directly under the Punjab government, avoiding the Forest Department and District Administrations.
At present, the PHA work at ten divisional venues throughout Punjab, including Lahore, Sahiwal, fine, Faisalabad, Bahawalpur, Rawalpindi, Sargodha, Gujranwala, Dera Ghazi Khan and Gujrat. Its main task is to maintain parks and build green belts to improve the environment and eliminate Smog.
According to the available records, there are three to four large and 40 small parks in other important cities of Punjab, which were first supervised by the forest department and will now be under the jurisdiction of the PHA. In addition, there are around 900 parks and more than 2,000 green belts and parking areas only in LaHore.
