Plantation day today

In 2009, August 18th was declared National Tree Planting Day in order to address deforestation and associated environmental problems being faced by the nation.
On this day the then minister for environment had also announced a ‘dedicated website’ with the title ‘Plant for Pakistan.gov.pk’ but a search for it showed no such website existed. What with the timber mafia and the present government’s policy of cutting down trees to create concrete jungles, we need to plant as many trees as possible. So let’s mark the day by planting a tree somewhere if not in our own backyards. Hopefully there will be a concerted effort by environmentalists and the public in general to participate in the campaign and plant a tree.
Trees benefit us in many ways. Both above and below ground, trees are essential to the eco-systems in which they grow. Their roots hold soil in place and fight erosion. Trees absorb and store rainwater which reduce runoff and sediment deposit after storms. This helps the ground water supply recharge, prevents the transport of chemicals into streams and prevents flooding -- the floods we witness each year in Pakistan are, in part, a result of the depletion of forests which are in turn a result of the timber mafia’s indiscriminate felling of trees.
Besides providing us with food and oxygen, trees play an important role in making our lives comfortable. Their wood provides us furniture and is even used for housing in many countries. Fallen leaves make excellent compost that enriches the soil. The bark of some trees can be made into cork and is a source of chemicals and medicines -- quinine and aspirin are both made from bark extracts. There are many, many other uses for trees and a world without them would be a poor and barren place indeed.
When we plant trees we should also see that they are nurtured and grow to their full potential. Events like the one when a Guinness World Record (GWR) was created by planting maximum number of trees in a single day (July 15, 2009) in a barren island near Keti Bundar, breaking the earlier World Record by India are not really an example of good intentions -- no one knows what happened to those trees as there has been no news on them since then certainly if they had been flourishing, there surely would have been someone taking the credit!