Peshawar: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) government has allocated PKR 500 million to increase the province’s forest cover, according to a news source. Provincial Minister for Forestry, Environment, And Wildlife Ishtiaq Urmar revealed this information on Monday at a press conference.
Urmar held the press conference jointly with government spokesperson Kamran Khan Bangash. He further revealed that the government would use the aforementioned funds to protect the saplings planted as part of the Billion Trees Tsunami plantation drive. Under this programme, 166 million seedlings have already been raised and grown in the area. Additionally, a further 190 million seedlings are available for planting and free distribution during the monsoon and spring seasons of 2021-22. Resultantly, the forest cover in KP is expected to increase by four percent.
The minister went on say that the project would create over 5,000 job opportunities. Furthermore, the next phase of the programme would involve planting saplings in over 44,000 hectares within the tribal districts. He added that PKR 9 billion would be used for this purpose.
Urmar lauded the project as an effective way to combat global warming, and deemed it as the biggest plantation drive in the country’s history.
