No end to commercial activities at Margalla Hills

Islamabad : There is no end in sight for unregulated commercial activities in protected Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) where ecological system is visibly deteriorating with each passing day.

The details gathered from the local sources showed that various commercial entities are ruining the natural beauty of the national park in violation of the laws introduced to protect this green area.

The complete demarcation of the boundary wall of the national park is yet to be done due to which different elements take its undue advantage to expand their commercial activities.

The interaction with officials of the relevant departments revealed that the Margalla hills serve as a boundary line between Islamabad and the Khyber-Pakhtoonkhawa (KP). One side of the Margalla hills falls in district Haripur of the KP while the other side is Islamabad. This factor affects the regulation of the commercial activities in the national park.

Only two restaurants are located in the jurisdiction of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) while the rest of the handcarts and restaurants are located in district Haripur.

It is encouraging to note that the federal government would build a wall along with Margalla Avenue to help protect the boundary of the national park against any kind of encroachment or illegal occupation by certain elements. It will help protect the forest cover of the Margalla hills to some extent.

The Islamabad Wildlife Management Board (IWMB) chairperson was of the view that “The status of the national park strictly prohibits any commercial activity and settlement in the area but a chain of hotels, mushrooming in this diverse park, is destroying the whole environment.”