ISLAMABAD: A large number of trees were cut down in Islamabad due to the development works during the previous decade and the city has not recovered from that loss, says Rehana Shahid.

A resident of sector I-8, Ms Shahid said the numbers of trees were high in areas where families had been living for decades.

`We used to have at least one fruit tree in every house but now the number has reduced significantly. The same is the case with the CDA which is not planting fruit trees nowadays,` she added.

Not only many residents do agree with Ms Shahid but also officials in the Capital Development Authority (CDA) are now reconsidering planting fruit trees after over 20 years.

The reason behind not planting fruit trees might be the fact that these created garbage. Secondly, many people settled in the city after returning from the Gulf countries where there is no trend of tree plantation.

However, the CDA has decided to plant 10 per cent fruit trees in the upcoming plantation drive scheduled to be launched on March 5. The civic agency has set an ambitious target of planting 600,000 saplings in the spring plantation drive, half of it to be done by various NGOs, corporate and government offices.`The CDA will plant around 300,000 saplings this year and 10 per cent of it would be fruit trees, including jamun, guava, lokat and some citrus varieties,` said member environment and engineering Sanaullah Aman.

The CDA has been planting over half a million trees per year in the spring and monsoon plantation drives but many parts of the city still wear a barren look.

`Not all the trees are planted in the city area, the majority of saplings are planted in Margalla Hills and the catchments of the Simly dam,` said Malik Auliya, the deputy director general environment.

He added that the success rate of the saplings in the forests was around 30-40 per cent and in the urban areas it was up to 80 per cent. `But why people think that there is no visible sign of plantation in city. The saplings take time to grow and we are not planting the fast-growing varieties anymore because they are not suitable in the long run,` he added.

The average time for the trees to reach the height of around five feet is five years but it is much longer for some varieties like the pine that takes up to 40-50 years to mature.

Kachnar can take three to four years to reach the flowing age. The standard plan is to plant trees at a distance of 20 feet from each other in the urban areas and five feet in the forest.

`So when the trees are small the arealooks flat and barren,` Mr Auliya added.

Besides uprooting faced by the old trees, the other major cause of damage to the woodlands is cutting of trees amid the energy crises and growth in the number of katchi abadis.

`Traditionally, we used to ignore chopping of twigs by villagers as it is also good for the forest and the trees but there are reports that people are selling firewood in the markets,` said member environmentSanaullah Aman. `Now special teams have been formed to countercheck even the forest guards.

Though planting around one million saplings as envisaged for 2014 seems to be a gigantic task, the civic body will not be spending much on the operation as its vast nursery spreading over 46 acres has the capacity to produce around 800,000 saplings annually. And much of the plantation is done by the staff of the CDA.