Govt asked to ban transport of timber out of Chitral

CHITRAL: The members of a civic forum on Wednesday alleged the forest was being chopped off mercilessly under a plan and asked the government to cancel the licence for transportation of timber out of Chitral.

Speaking at a press conference, members of the Village Council Forum, including Sajjad Ahmad Khan, Naveed Ahmad Baig, Mujibur Rahman Shami and others alleged that illegal cutting of forest trees in Arando was continued unabated. They alleged that the government was paying the way for transportation of millions of feet of timber from Chitral to timber markets in other areas of the country from the district.

They said that the government was trying to give legal cover to the illegal cutting of trees in the district, which they said, would destroy the forest in the district. They said that on the one hand the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI)-led Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government had launched the Billion Tree Tsunami Plantation campaign to increase the number of trees.