Satellite images show encroachment in Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden

Islamabad : The latest satellite images have shown that a huge portion of the protected Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden near Bhara Kahu has been illegally occupied by private builders.

These images have raised alarm bells among the environmentalists who have vowed to take up this issue with the highest authorities in the government.

The details revealed that the private builders removed pillars of the Zoo-cum-Botanical garden and occupied the land to establish residential structures for their financial gains.

It is pertinent to mention here that the government had erected one hundred and sixty boundary pillars to protect 725 acres of land of the Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden.

The idea of developing of Zoo-Cum-Botanical Garden was incorporated into the Master Plan of Islamabad in 1968. In 1989, a land in Banigala measuring 725 acres in the four mouzas (Mohra Noor, Phulgran, Atthal, and Mallot) of Islamabad was allocated to the Zoological Survey of Pakistan. In 2002, a proper demarcation process for the land was initiated in line with the directions issued by the Chief Executive Secretariat.

There is a plan to establish a zoo, a botanical garden, an agricultural park, and a library and research center along with the conservation of endemic plant and animal species and wetland area management.

The climate change ministry had sent a letter to then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in which it stated that "A team of Survey of Pakistan carried out demarcation of the boundary pillars of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden, Banigala hills, Islamabad in presence of the representatives of the Zoological Survey of Pakistan."

It said, "Demarcation has been drawn, however, encroachment/illegal occupation will be removed by CDA/ICT, Islamabad on the start of work on the boundary wall."

The letter said, "PC-I on the construction of boundary wall of Zoo-cum-Botanical Garden has been prepared with an estimated cost of Rs109.042 million and has been sent to the Planning and Development Division on 19th April 2017 for its placement before the Central Development Working Party (CDWP) for construction and approval."

Later, the CDWP approved this project in May 2017 to build a boundary wall around the zoo and botanical garden in Islamabad.