DLP Report
PESHAWAR
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government will mark Pakistan Day on March 23 with a province-wide plantation campaign aimed at planting one million trees in a single day.
Officials said the initiative is part of the provincial government’s efforts to promote environmental protection and advance the vision of a greener and more sustainable province.
Secretary Climate Change, Forestry, Environment and Wildlife Junaid Khan said the plantation drive would be launched simultaneously across the province under the chief minister’s “Green Khyber Pakhtunkhwa” vision.
He said planting one million trees in a single day would be an unprecedented achievement and a significant step towards promoting environmental responsibility and ecological conservation.
Mr Khan said Pakistan Day commemorates the historic adoption of the Pakistan Resolution on March 23, 1940, when Muslims of the subcontinent expressed their resolve for an independent homeland. He added that the provincial government had decided to observe the day as a “Green Pledge” to safeguard the country’s natural resources and ensure a sustainable future.
The secretary noted that climate change had emerged as a major global challenge and that Pakistan was among the countries significantly affected by its impacts. He said tree plantation was essential for improving air quality, restoring ecological balance and promoting sustainable development.
Muhammad Junaid Dayar, project director of the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami Project and focal person for the March 23 plantation drive, said saplings were already being dispatched from government forest nurseries to districts across the province.
He said the plantation campaign would formally begin at 9am on March 23 and continue until the final sapling was planted.
To ensure transparency and maintain a record of the activity, he said a specialised software application and a central monitoring dashboard had been established at the control centre.
Through the system, details regarding the distribution of saplings, plantation sites and planting activities would be shared with the central centre through mobile phones, along with live videos and photographs. The application also includes an offline data submission facility for remote areas with limited internet connectivity.
Mr Dayar said the campaign would involve the participation of government departments, educational institutions, district administrations, the Motorway Police, Pakistan Railways, local communities and the armed forces.
