KARACHI is losing its mangroves to encroachment.
The reported cutting of mangroves and construction of bunds beside the Mangrove Biodiversity Park at Korangi Creek is alarming because the destruction appears methodical: block the tidal flow, allow the trees to dry, clear the vegetation and convert the land into a plot. That this is happening next to a park inaugurated only last year exposes the gap between official environmental rhetoric and what is allowed on the ground.
Mangroves are not wasteland awaiting ‘development’. They are among Karachi’s most valuable assets. They help absorb carbon, support fish nurseries and coastal biodiversity, stabilise shorelines and reduce the force of coastal hazards. For a city already exposed to rising climate risks, destroying them is an act of self-harm.
The Sindh government cannot treat this as an ordinary land dispute and wait indefinitely for competing departments or courts to resolve the matter while the ecosystem is destroyed.
If the Forest Department maintains that the land is its property and that the allotments are illegal, the provincial government must establish the facts, defend the land in court and ensure that no further alteration takes place in the interim. The Board of Revenue, Forest Department, police and district administration must act together, instead of hiding behind jurisdictional excuses. Temporary protective orders, monitoring of vulnerable creek areas and criminal action against those cutting or poisoning mangroves should be pursued wherever the law allows. The government should also map encroachments along Karachi’s coastline and make the record available. Sindh has repeatedly celebrated mangrove restoration and plantation drives. Those efforts mean little if mature forests can be quietly killed to manufacture real estate. Protecting Karachi’s mangroves needs more than slogans. It requires the state to stop powerful interests from turning a public ecological shield into private land.