“Forest land in Sindh has been leased out to influential people, including politicians and tribal chiefs, who have converted it into agriculture land,” Jamali said. He said, “As per the UN standards, any country or province in the world should have at least 25 per cent of forest cover out of its total land area, but unfortunately, Sindh is short of 23.10 per cent forest cover,” he added. Thus, the forest cover of Sindh has reduced to 1.90 per cent from 5.11 per cent (Forest on Sindh government and private lands.) According to latest Sindh Forest Department data, the forests of Sindh province prior to World War II were almost fully stocked. To restore forest cover, the federal government has initiated five-year-long Green Pakistan Program to plant 100 million indigenous saplings in the country.

Source: Pakistan Today December 02, 2017 08:03 UTC