Thousands of plants in the northern circle of Dera Ismael Khan (DI Khan) Forest Department have been burnt to ashes so far in different incidents of fire at several places of the jungle, grown under the Prime Minister’s Billion Tree Tsunami project, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday. 

It is worth pointing out here that despite the fact that the incidents of fire are becoming common in the green areas surrounding Dera Ismael Khan to Islamabad National Highway, Forest Department Paharpur sub-division staff, instead of attending to the problem, is busy concealing the losses caused to the forest by these fires.

Plant for Pakistan (Plant4Pakistan), now known as 10 Billion Tree Tsunami, is a five-year project to plant 10 billion trees across Pakistan from 2018 to 2023.

Prime Minister Imran Khan had launched the drive on 2 September 2018 with approximately 1.5 million trees planted on the first day.

The project was initially launched in 2014, by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) as a response to the challenge of global warming. 

The purpose of launching the project was to improve the ecosystems of classified forests, as well as privately owned waste and farm lands, and therefore entails working in close collaboration with concerned communities and stakeholders to ensure their meaningful participation through effectuating project promotion and extension services. 

The projected was completed in August 2017, ahead of schedule.