Planting trees: Beating Karachi's heat the green way
In 2007, Karachi's city government planted almost 200,000 Conocarpus trees in different parts of the city, which has now become less of an aide and more of a disaster in the city. Photo: Dunya News
(Dunya News) – One of nature’s air purifier, trees are an essential component of our environment that provide shade from the scorching heat while releasing oxygen in the air.
However, some trees, if not planted in the right environment can become less of an aide. In Karachi, the absence of indigenous trees has caused disaster to the residents. Monocultured trees, such as Conocarpus trees, which are small to medium sized trees, are providing less shelter to city dwellers during the summer’s heat and less oxygen that indigenous trees does.
In 2007, Karachi’s city government planted almost 200,000 Conocarpus trees in different parts of the city, which has now become less of an aide and more of a disaster in the city.
According to environmental experts, Conocarpus trees are not ideal trees to be planted in a city like Karachi. The wide number of plantation of one type of tree species is becoming a health risk for people.
Speaking to Dunya News, “Conocarpus trees hardly produce any oxygen, they barely provide any shade neither its wood is useful in anyway nor birds nest on it. Without any knowledge some people planted these trees on a wide scale without understanding the significance of it," said Naeem Qureshi, President of national forum for Environment and Health.
Karachi’s court has outright banned any more plantation of Conocarpus trees. However, there has been no action taken against the already planted trees nor replacing it with suitable trees.
For more on this, watch a report by Dunya News below.
