After reading several jokes from the government printed in the newspaper, the latest was an announcement that "5000 saplings would be planted in Saddar Town."
May I ask a few questions?
1) Do you have enough water to give these 5000 saplings and the thousands of trees planted over the years that are now dying?
2) Do you have trained malis to look after the saplings, manure them and keep them alive? We have an example in the hundreds of Date Palms planted by the government in Karachi in the last few years and 50% of these trees are already dead or dying.
3) How are you going to protect these saplings and the other road side plantations from the civil organisations who dig up the roads and cut into the roots of the trees, when ostensibly repairing the roads and footpaths. Twice or thrice a year the KESC massacres the trees whose branches come close to the electric wires. Should they not use electric saws instead of hacking them so crudely and ruining these majestic trees.
Apart from this, the base of most of the trees trunks are covered and cemented over when the footpaths are made, leaving no room for giving the tree, water or manure, even defeating Allah, when His blessings of rain are showered on us and the trees.
4) The worst is colouring the trunks of the trees with green red and white paint, thereby stopping the trunks of the trees from breeding. Can the Municipality explain the reason for painting these trees with toxic paints? How would they like their legs to be similarly painted red up to their knees?
Some years ago when my family built their house, they planted 9 to 10 trees outside their home. After 10 years, only 6 are remaining because the trees have been ruthlessly cemented all round the base of their trunks leaving no space for water to penetrate or for the trees to breathe.
The only alternative for me is to take the law into my own hands and dig up the side walk, so that the trees can be watered and manured, if not by the jokers, then, by us, the citizens.
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