A video emerged of an incident in August in which hundreds of Pakistani villagers uprooted thousands of trees that had been newly planted as part of the '10 Billion Trees' project, launched this year by the Pakistani government.
The incident occurred in the Mandi Kas area which sits in the Khyber Pass and involved hundreds of men and boys running frantically over the fields ripping up the young trees. They were also shown waving black Islamic flags and holding up Qurans.
Angry men ripping out baby trees planted by volunteers yesterday under Pakistan’s inspired Ten Billion Tree Tsunami initiative. Unclear why. Desperately misguided religious extremism apparently. I am sure God wishes us to heal rather than destroy nature. pic.twitter.com/l3YW7aHNKo
— Ben Goldsmith (@BenGoldsmith) August 10, 2020
While it was at first unclear as to what the exact motivation was for carrying out the act, it was later revealed that this was the result of a land dispute between local people and the central government authorities.
Deputy Commissioner of the area Khyber Mahmood Aslam stated that the issue was that one local tribe had been in favour of the land being used for the '10 Billion Trees' campaign, while another had refused. He said:
"One of the groups gave permission for the plantation drive; the other uprooted them."
After mitigation, an agreement was reached between all parties in the conflict and a later video showed older men planting new trees.
Plantation in District Khyber that was earlier destroyed, has been restored by the District Administration. pic.twitter.com/eLaM8bhvEW
— Amjad khan (@Amjid17HED) August 9, 2020
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan launched the 10 Billion Trees campaign in 2018 as part of an ambitious drive to reforest the country and fight back against climate change. The project has also been seen as a useful economic stimulus in the country, particularly as so many workers were laid off following the outbreak of the CoVid-19 pandemic.
While the project was halted while safety measures were put in place, even more workers have now been hired, all of whom work in a socially distanced manner.
Rahman, a resident of Rawalpindi district in Punjab province, who was hired after he lost his job, has heralded the program for allowing him to continue to feed his family through such difficult times. He stated in an interview with Reuters:
"Due to coronavirus, all the cities have shut down and there is no work. Most of us daily wagers couldn't earn a living. All of us now have a way of earning daily wages again to feed our families."
While he now only earns $3 a day, about half of what he was previously earning, he does believe it is enough to see him and his family through the crisis until normality returns.
Similar tree planting projects are currently also being undertaken in Russia, India and China, and it is hoped that these mass plantings will go some way to tackling the ever increasing threat of global warming.
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