Chief Minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Pervez Khan Khattak has said his government is fighting against the timber mafia, which have destroyed the forests and cause a huge loss to the environment.
Speaking at the concluding session of the three-day national conference on the Climate Change organised by the Climate Change Centre at the University of Agriculture, Peshawar here on Wednesday, he said his government had confiscated wood of Rs 10 billion, which the timber mafia and its handlers entrenched the bureaucracy had cut-down in the name of windfall.
He said had zero tolerance for those who were spoiling and destroying the natural assets and sources. Khattak said his government had focused on the plantation of sapling across the province to combat against the rising temperature. He said by the closing of December 2016, they would achieve a target 500 million plantation of sapling.
He hoped that the academic institutions and research centres would guide the government how to cope with the changing weather pattern. He said during the last 70 years, successive provincial governments had got planted only three million saplings, while his government was determined to plant 1000 million trees during its tenure.
He said he thought that shrinking sources of water, deforestation and rising pollution would pose a challenge to future generation. He said the climate change had become a people's problem and universities and institutes should teach the negative effects of the climate change to the common people.
Speaking overall position of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Mohammad Hanif, Director of Meteorological Department, has said that during the last 20 years, summer has extended to 160 days from 140 days. Similarly, he said, the winter has shrunk to about 45 days from 60 days, while spring was almost becoming non-existent. He said this was alarming, especially for crops and water resources. The average temperature has risen over 25 years to about 1 C to 2 C and it was increasing by the passage of every year, he added.
Hanif said monsoon had slightly increased and winter rainfall had decreased, the rain pattern had shifted to about 100 kilo meters west from the north. He said all these changes were leading to disaster.
Dr Arjumand Nizami, country representative of Inter-Co-operation based in Pakistan, has said that presentation of Dr Hanif had paved way for the case of adaptation. She said that these changes were taking place hence the only choice was to adapt to these changes.