air pollution is among the most severe in the world engendering significant damage to human health and the economy. The report also lamented the government’s lack of interest over the issue. How sincere our governments are about Pakistan’s environmental protection can be judged from former prime minister Raja Pervez Ashraf’s act of benevolence just a day before the end of his government’s tenure. According to news reports he allowed transportation of timber from the Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The removal of the ban on movement of timber, which was in place since the 1990s, resulted in deforestation by the timber mafia, endangering the environment and increasing risks of silting in the Tarbela Dam. In the March 15, 2013 notification the prime minister not only approved disposal of legally but illegally cut timber too from Diamer.
The World Bank report expressed concern over data that the harm caused by air pollution in Pakistan’s urban areas is the highest in the South Asian region and advocated measures like building mass transit systems in urban areas to reduce air pollution. In the plundered city of Karachi, however, the feudal democracy’s revenge instead of reviving Karachi Circular Railway inundated the orphan city with Qingqi rickshaws reported to be a good way to extract daily bhatta (extortion money).
A recent research study conducted by the PCSIR’s Centre for Environmental Studies disclosed in August 2014 that Karachi’s air is heavily polluted with lead, cadmium and carbon monoxide (CO) and poses a huge risk to public health.
Providing Pakistan with healthier lungs in the form of greater tree-covered areas is among the most important environmental protection measures. For that we could consider establishing’eco corridors’ in our polluted major urban centres. The idea is that the federal and provincial governments rent out or lease unutilised state land areas measuring from 1000 to 10,000 acres around major cities to national and international investors for converting them into eco corridors.
To make the project financially productive the investors should be allowed to use five percent of the allotted land for commercial purposes such as establishment of recreational farms, 20 percent for commercial agricultural purposes like growing fruit orchards or traditional crops like wheat, rice etc, 15 percent for drawing wood for commercial purposes while the remaining 60 percent should be used to grow forests consisting of native trees. The monthly rent could be based on the particular percentage of land usage. The federal, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab governments could implement and create eco corridors for the long-term protection of Pakistan’s ecology.