Afforestation in Murree Hills

In early eighties extraction of resin from Chir trees was stopped due to over exploitation. The ultimate result was extensive damage to Chir Trees that died over the years. The removal of dead dry trees created large blanks within the Chir forest. Moreover, these forests have been subjected to tremendous pressure of human population, forest fires and grazing at the seeding stage. As a result, blanks are experienced.
These blanks are not only yielding nothing but are significantly increasing sedimentation load of Simli, Rawal and Mangla water reservoirs, productive capacity of land is deteriorating due to excessive soil erosion and landslides. Afforestation of blank areas is therefore, essential to meet the ever-increasing demand of timber, fuelwood, conservation of water and soil resources and climate change mitigation.
The project envisages afforestation of 450 acers blank area of Murree & North Forest Division Rawalpindi in which 22500 bigger sized plants of Chir will be planted at a spacing of 30ft x 30ft. Bigger sized plants of Chir having minimum height 5ft and minimum collar diameter 1.5 inches will be purchased from open market through tendering as per provisions of Punjab Procurement Regulatory Authority rules. These bigger sized Chir plants will be planted in the circular pits having size of 2 feet dia from mouth, 1.5’ from bottom and 1.5’ deep = 3.60 Cft. Volume.
This project will be implemented during the period 2015-2018. The total cost of the project is 50.46 million. Under this project afforestation over an area of 450 acres besides soil conservation works over an area of 360 acres will be carried out.