LAHORE: Under the ‘Ten Billion Tree Tsunami campaign’ Prime Minister Imran Khan Monday inaugurated the world’s largest Miyawaki urban forest in Lahore city.
The PM was briefed about the Miyawaki Urban Forest project on the occasion. The Miyawaki forest has been developed over 100 kanals with a total of 165,000 plants, which will grow 10 times quicker than a normal forest owing to the unique Miyawaki technique.
Speaking on the occasion, Prime Minister Imran Khan said Miyawaki forest is spanning over an area of one hundred kanal of land. He said that Miyawaki plants grow 10 percent faster than any other plant and this jungle has been set to grow at 53 places in Lahore city. This jungle will help to control environmental pollution and their efforts will provide a good environment to the next generations, he added.
“Lahore is the city of gardens and we will try our level best to restore its beauty; 640 million plants were planted during 64 years in Pakistan, while 1billion trees were planted in KPK from 2013 to 2018,” he said.
Highlighting the importance of forests in checking global warming and pollution, the PM urged the masses, especially the youth, to plant at least one tree each and look after it to ensure a clean and pollution-free Pakistan for the future generations.
Lauding the efforts of Punjab Chief Minister Usman Buzdar and his team for developing Miyawaki forests in Lahore, the premier hoped that its development in the provincial capital will help revive the past glory of Lahore, which used to be a city of gardens with trees planted all around, and now was considered as one of the most polluted cities of Pakistan.
Imran Khan dedicated the Miyawaki forest Lahore to Prof. Dr. Akira Miyawaki, a Japanese botanist and expert in plant ecology, who died on July 16, 2021.
“The world is faced with the issue of global warming due to various reasons, including deforestation; Pakistan is making efforts to check the phenomenon. However, there was a need to take measures at global level,” he added.
As many as 53 Miyawaki forests are being grown at different parts of Lahore to create sinks for carbon as well as for better pollution abatement in the city. All have been geo-tagged for monitoring of their growth and development.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021