HARIPUR: After deforestation in Malakand division, the timber mafia has now turned its attention to the Makhniyal forest in Haripur, which is located near Islamabad and is part of the Margalla Hills ecosystem.
Influential people have become active in opening the area for large-scale commercial activities, where factors such as indiscriminate tree cutting, mining and commercial grazing can pose serious threats to the region’s precious green belt.
The Supreme Court has already banned commercial activities in the Margalla Hills adjacent to Makhniyal, but despite this, the mafia is now active in projects to build hotels, housing societies and commercial buildings in the Makhniyal forest.
Shakeel Durrani, GDA board member said that commercial activities would destroy the ecosystem of Haripur and Islamabad. In this context, the Department of Forests and Wildlife, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, has suggested to the KP government that thousands of acres of land covered with trees and grass in Khanpur and Makhnial forest subdivisions of Haripur be declared as protected forests.
These recommendations have come after a comprehensive survey, in which the central and sub-committees of the Forest Department have identified 7060 plots in 78 villages (66 in Haripur and 12 in Abbottabad) that have trees and forests.
Under this project, 1602 acres of protected wastelands, which are outside the existing working plans, and 336 acres of land, which are already included in the forests, have been identified through GIS mapping and ground verification. Major locations include Khanpur Sub-Division, Maknial Sub-Division and the slopes of Margalla Hills.
Former bureaucrat Shakeel Durrani told Jang that he had strongly opposed the construction of hotels, housing societies and playgrounds in Maknial as a member of the GDA board, after which an attempt was made to hand over Maknial Forest to the Khanpur Tehsil Municipal Committee. He said that commercial encroachments from Islamabad, including hotels etc., have been eliminated, but the construction of farmhouses from the KP side is still going on.
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