By: Zulqarnain Khan
Deforestation is a process in which the illegal cutting of trees takes place. Over half of the world’s forests have been destroyed in the last 10,000 or so years the majority of this loss has occurred in just the last 50 years, occurring simultaneously with a massive increase in the human population. The incredible scale of this loss has led to significant changes throughout many parts of the world, and in recent years these changes have been accelerating. These changes include: large-scale extinction events, desertification, climatic changes, topsoil loss, flooding, famine, disease outbreaks, and insect plagues among others.
Deforestation occurs primarily as a result of: agriculture, fuel use and production (firewood, charcoal, etc), timber harvesting, pasture clearing for livestock animals, and expanding human settlements. Around 84% damage to forests was due to cutting of trees for fuel and massive grazing, he said and added that an annual growth of 200 cubic feet of trees is required to sustain forests.
Deforestation in Balakot effected the eco system and eco tourism. People of the Balakot are totally dependent on the forests they get fuel wood from the forest and most of the earnings of community are due to the tourism. As they are cutting forests the environment is being destroyed. Due to deforestation in Balakot the beauty of the area is decreasing due to which tourism is being decreased .The top soil is removing .The temperature is increasing due to deforestation in Balakot .The rainfall is decreased climate is changing day by day. As a result of the deforestation tourists are changing their paths to other areas.
Forests have been a revenue generation resource for the cash-strapped province. It earned Rs538 million in 2006-07. In next two years, it is expected to fetch Rs539 million and Rs584 millions. For this fiscal, the government has set a target of Rs584 million. The amount could be much bigger if timber smuggling was curtailed.
Deforestation is a major problem and between 1990 and 2005, the country’s forest depleted by 2.1 per cent annually. Deforestation was the highest for coniferous forests in KPK and Northern Areas. Experts believe that the state-owned forests alone are incurring loss of billions of rupees billion annually.
According to my father when he visited to Sanghar (Balakot) in 1988, there was a big dense forest. On a visit to the area in 2007, it wasn’t there. The locals had utilised the wood there for fuel and housing, I was told. Non-availability of gas fuel has increased deforestation here and more and more of wood is used for construction and heating of homes and hotels.
Deforestation also causes soil erosion due to which people of Balakot are facing floods .We should take some serious steps to avoid deforestation .We should plant trees as much as we can to have a better and eco friendly environment for us and for our coming generations.
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