Drive to be launched next month to plant 100,000 saplings in city

Two non-governmental organisations have joined hands to launch a tree planting drive next month to meet the target of planting a total of 100,000 trees and plants in Karachi in 2024.

The National Forum for Environment & Health (NFEH) and the Plant a Million for Community (PMC) signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly launch the massive tree planting campaign in the city. NFEH President Naeem Qureshi, and businessmen and PMC founders Razzaq Pardesi and Murad Ali Soni signed the agreement at a ceremony.

Under the agreement, the PMC will donate plants of indigenous species to the NFEH to conduct its planting campaign in the city. The NFEH will also launch a mass awareness drive to motivate school students, corporate and industrial sectors, the media and other NGOs concerned to actively take part in the tree planting campaign.

Qureshi said on the occasion that the tree planting campaign would be launched in February and continue until October to plant 100,000 plants and saplings in the city.

He said the office of the Karachi commissioner, the city mayor, the Karachi Metropolitan Corporation (KMC), the newly formed town municipal administrations (TMAs), the DHA, the cantonment boards and corporate organisations would be fully involved in the tree planting drive. He also said that it would be mainly the responsibility of the KMC, the TMAs, the cantonment boards, the DHA and other land-owning agencies in the city to point out the proper sites for planting tree saplings and plants.

He added that the new campaign would fully supplement the ongoing beautification, horticultural and tree planting activities taking place in the city to make its open urban places, roads and streets clean and green.

Qureshi said that the new sites would be selected in consultation with the KMC, the TMAs and other NGOs concerned for the best utilisation of the available open urban spaces for increasing the green cover and growing urban forests in the city.

“We will donate plants to every concerned citizen, company and industry that approaches us with their resolve to contribute to the cause of making Karachi clean and green, but all of these recipients will have to give a solemn undertaking that they will be fully responsible for watering, nurturing and protecting these saplings till they become fully grown trees.”

He said the NFEH would work shoulder to shoulder with the commissioner’s office, the KMC, the TMAs and the cantonment boards to take care of the saplings planted under the upcoming green initiative.

He maintained that the upcoming clean and green Karachi campaign continues the efforts of the NFEH launched some eight years ago in partnership with the commissioner’s office to conduct extensive tree planting and cleanliness drives in the city.