Capital has 75% sapling survival rate, says mayor

Islamabad: Islamabad has a 75 per cent overall sapling survival rate after its plantation campaigns, said mayor of the capital city Sheikh Ansar Aziz on Wednesday.

"We need to undertake consistent efforts in order to make Islamabad green and beautiful again," he told the inaugural ceremony of plantation drive of COMSATS University Islamabad led by students and faculty members near the Koral Chowk construction site on Islamabad Expressway in cooperation with the Capital Development Authority (CDA) and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad (MCI).

Over 200 students, faculty members and residents participated in the drive. The mayor said he was encouraged by students participating in the plantation activity, which was previously thought to be a job for the government.

Addressing students and participants of the plantation drive, Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar, Rector COMSATS University Islamabad informed that a huge calamity has stricken the Amazon forest in South America, which acts as the lungs for the global atmosphere, contributing over 20 percent oxygen and sequestering a significant amount of carbon.

He said that efforts need to be undertaken in order to help governments stop the rain forest fires afflicting the Amazon as this is a problem of the Global commons. Prof. Dr. Raheel Qamar said that COMSATS University Islamabad has always been at the forefront in advocacy for increasing forest cover and reducing the environmental burden by reducing the use of plastics. Last year he said that a total of 32,000 trees were planted across seven campuses of the COMSATS University and we hope to continue planting a similar number of trees every year.

Moreover, COMSATS University introduced the concept of Adopt a Tree, which means that over the year the trees are cared for by the university at the plantation site. He encouraged students and faculty members to join hands to plant more fruit trees according to the theme of this year’s campaign. Trees were at the base of a thriving ecosystem, while their reduction causes a devastating impact on forest life, climate change and ultimately human well-being. Students sang national songs as they cheered the participants of the drive during the tree plantation drive.