PESHAWAR
\nRecent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had badly exposed the ill-planning of the Ten-Billion Trees Afforestation Project (10 BTAP) damaging several sites where the provincial government had spent millions of rupees for afforestation.
\nThe August 27 devastating floods that started in Mataltan and Kalam valleys in Swat have exposed the poor planning and selection of inappropriate plantation sites, river training programs, nurseries, waterlogs, and other schemes.
\nAs a result, 52 plantation sites covering 968 hectares of land in Peshawar, Kohat, Bannu, Kurram, Bajaur, Orakzai, and South Waziristan areas were affected inflicting Rs 108.530 million in financial losses to the already fragile economy of the province.
\nTen Billion Tree Afforestation Project (BTAP), a flagship project of the Pakistan Tahrik-i-Insaf (PTI) government that had a share of Rs27.3 billion of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and its plantation sites at 2,216 hectares of land were affected by floods that caused loss of an overall Rs255 million to the provincial government kitty.
\nAccording to official data, in addition to losses mentioned in the above seven cities, a loss of Rs41.729 million has also been reported from Haripur, Abbottabad, Manshera, and Kohistan districts of the Hazara division.
\nDamages have also been reported from 60 sites in the Bunner watershed division due to irresponsible selection of different plantation sites, bio-engineering schemes, bad land stabilization, check dams, rains water harvesting, nurseries, and water development schemes on 460 hectares of land. Alike reports of damages to about 96 plantation sites including avenue and moist afforestation were also reported due to bad land stabilization schemes, nurseries, and bio-engineering from Swat, Shangla, Dir Kohistan, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, and Chitral districts. Plantation on 787.23 hectares of land in these districts was also badly affected causing a loss of Rs104.792 million.
\nBesides these flood-specific losses, there are also reports of irregularities being investigated by the National Accountability Bureau allegedly claiming the prospects of much more financial bungling in the project.
\nWajid Ali Khan, former Minister for Environment and Forests has described the ill planning of the provincial government as one the main reasons behind these financial losses.
\n\u201cBTAP\u2019s plantations and agreements inked with farmers for the provision of land for afforestation were made in haste as these plantation sites were not meant for premature cutting of a large number of trees by land owners and farmers under the mutual agreements,\u201d he said. Mentioning recent media disclosures regarding the alleged detection of Rs3.493 billion irregularities during three years (2019-21), Wajid Ali said a thorough probe was needed to unearth if these facts were true.
\nMeanwhile, a special audit of 10 BTAP had also revealed Rs1259 million as doubtful payments, Rs 983 million expenditures fictitious and 36 percent eucalyptus plantation made against 10pc provisions of PC-I resulting in Rs11.96 million losses.
\nSince this matter surfaced in media reports quoting the Audit department, it has also been taken up by NAB. Therefore, only a proper investigation could reveal the truth.
\nWajid Ali Khan has also cited that there was a high risk of misappropriation in the establishment of enclosures as the land under GPS measurement was shown as much more than the actual 16,953.74 hectares of land used for plantation.
\n \u201cThese mismatching figures could have resulted in the loss of millions of rupees.\u201d The wrong selection of enclosures sites has also marred progress on 10 BTAP\u2019s plantations including merged tribal districts as there is a shortfall of about 450 million plants by that time, against the target set for June 2023. Depending on forest enclosures to achieve the assigned target of planting additional one billion saplings by 2023 under phase-I of the BTAP project, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was also feared to miss the target set for the current year.
\nCommenting on the situation, Muhammad Ibrahim Khan, Deputy Project Director, BTAP said that against the set target of raising 4,300 enclosures in South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Kurrum, Orakzai, Khyber, Mohmand, and Bajaur, 2,000 enclosures were established in these districts. \u201cRemaining 2,300 enclosures were shifted to Malakand and Hazara divisions as tribesmen in some areas of the merged districts were reluctant to provide land for afforestation.\u201d He also hinted at the closure of around 500 enclosures in merged districts mostly in North Waziristan, South Waziristan, and Kurrum due to security reasons and lack of funds. \u201cOne enclosure normally costs about Rs180,000 and at least 100 acres of land was required for regeneration of plants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PESHAWAR Recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had badly exposed the ill-planning of the Ten-Billion Trees Afforestation Project (10 BTAP) damaging several sites where the provincial government had spent millions of rupees for afforestation. The August 27 devastating floods that started in Mataltan and Kalam valleys in Swat have exposed the poor planning and selection of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":296472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-296446","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-peshawar"},"yoast_head":"\n