By: Dawood Jan
DIR: Trees which had been planted in “Billion tree tsunami project”, a project of the previous Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf provincial government, in the picnic and tourist spot in Dir city, the hill park, have now starting to grow which has increased the beauty of the area as people visit the spot and spend some pleasant time here.
The spot is situated on the top of the hill in the Dir city where the only hill park of the city has been made. And people along with their families go there to enjoy and tourists from other areas of the country also visit the scenic spot. However, tourists and local always complained about naked and empty area nearby the hill park which affected the beauty of the spot. And before the trees plantation, the hill top that particular area was looking very ugly due to which many people didn’t like to revisit the spot. The forest department of Upper Dir had selected the area for plantation under the billion tree tsunami project. And there plantation had been made some five year before in 2016.
Now the trees of the plantation after five years, are growing sharply and healthy due to which the beauty of the Dir city has increased. The empty and naked hill is now looking lash green after growing up the trees. The people of the Dir now pleased with the increasing beauty of the hill top and praised the efforts of forest department and district administration. The district administration had deployed levies personnel there in the hill to keep vigilance on the plantation and preserve them from both human and animals. People believe that the trees growth was not possible without watch of the levies deployed there. And the forest department is also thankful to district administration for being providing support to them.
After growing up the trees the tourist spot has got more importance as more people visit the area and spend some time there to refresh themselves. It is to be mentioned that from the scenic spot it looks very attractive and enchanting over view of Dir city.
The divisional forest officer, Dir division, Abdul Majeed, said that they were very happy to see the healthy growth of the trees planted some five years ago. He said that it was considering their great achievement regarding billion tree tsunami project. He said that it was not the only spot where the project trees have well grown-up however lots of the saplings that they had planted under the project five to six years ago were growing up healthy.
Residents of the Dir city appreciated the previous PTI provincial government for being initiated a billion trees tsunami project. They said that in many areas of the district the plantation drive had remained successful. Residents said they would struggle in future in protection of trees and forests to play their active role in enhancing beauty of the district and the people of the district should also play their role in preservation of trees and forests.