Probe finding says no trees lost in Nowshera forest fire

NOWSHERA: The Forest and Wildlife departments of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government have submitted a report on a recent fire, saying that no trees were burnt in the incident.

Deputy Commissioner Ihasanullah Mehsud said forests were developed by the Pakistan Army, Forest Department and KP government on 272 hectares of land in the Army range near the Pirpai town of the Nowshera district.

The deputy commissioner said the trees were planted under the 10 Billion Trees Tsunami Project by the Pakistan Army and Forest Department. He said the project was completed successfully.

The official said some miscreants created a fire at two points in the forest spread over 68 hectares which came out to be almost 1360 kanal of land.

He said the report on the forest fire submitted by the Forest and Wildlife departments said that grass spread over 68 hectares was torched but there was no loss to the 12,000 olive trees and the Wildlife forest in the incident.

The report said all the solar panels, batteries, inverters and water pumps were dismantled for safety, adding these would be handed to the Army within a week.It said the investigation team of the Forest Department and police would take departmental action, followed by a legal action.

The deputy commissioner said Divisional Forest Officer Tariq Khadim and Sub-divisional Forest Officer Ashfaq Khan visited all the forests.The official said both rejected the reports published in a section of Urdu press which had exaggerated the fire incident.

They said four employees, including Naeem Khan, Nazakat Khan, Juned Khan and Shahsawar were questioned and they said that they extinguished the fire on a self-help basis with cooperation from local people as Rescue 1122 teams could not approach the site.It is added that the afforestation project was launched in 2019 and ended this year.