CUI launches fruit tree plantation campaign

Islamabad: Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar, rector, COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI) planted a sapling to kick off the 2019 Plantation Drive at the Islamabad Campus of COMSATS University. The drive is part of the Prime Minister’s Campaign of achieving Clean and Green Pakistan. Over 100 faculty members participated in the brief inaugural ceremony. COMSATS has organized two similar plantation campaigns, planting over 40,000 trees along its seven campuses later last year.

In Islamabad alone COMSATS University has not only planted over 10,000 trees, in land identified by the Capital Development Authority, but has also looked after them for over a year now, using its own resources, raised by students and faculty members. The plantation drives earlier organized by the university boast nearly an eighty percent survival rate of plants, which in itself is a huge success.

Rector CUI said that this year’s campaign would focus on planting fruit trees so that people may be rewarded with fruit as the trees mature and establish a relationship with the tree. While reminiscing his time in Abbottabad, Dr. Raheel Qamar said that trees were an integral part of the natural beauty of the area. However, as the trees were depleted with time, no serious effort was made to replenish the natural forest reserves.

Dr. Raheel Qamar said that the current government’s efforts for planting trees and restoring the natural forest cover of the country were timely. Trees contribute in reducing the harmful effects of climate change and their depletion has far reaching adverse effects in aggravating pollution and wildlife conservation.

COMSATS University Islamabad will continue to raise awareness among its student body and will lead efforts in media from its own resources to bring about a behavioral change for adopting sustainable practices and greener environment, he added.