KARACHI: There is a new urban forest coming up by the seashore in Clifton, but to write about it, one first needed to find it.
Taking directions from Shahzad Qureshi, the person already known to have transformed much of his adopted park into an urban forest by using the Miyawaki method, one reached the spot all right. First a greenhouse came into view, then a camper’s little blue tent and then the man behind this new urban forest, who happily took one around to show the work done there so far.
For the last month, the little blue camper’s tent has been home to Masood Lohar, the main force behind this urban forest that would be planted on an area of 200 acres, no less. “Over the years, due to our own callousness, our ecosystem has been compromised. But we are going to plant some three million trees to create a jungle here. Once the saplings being planted there take root, it will surely do its share of work in regenerating biodiversity,” he told Dawn.
Formerly working with the UNDP Global Environmental Finance (UNDP-GEF) Unit, Mr Lohar opted for early retirement. From his provident fund and pension, he managed to set up a plant nursery in Hyderabad. “It was there that I managed to ready one million saplings of peelu trees. We wanted to plant these trees, but where? The Navy offered us land at Sandspit, Murtaza Wahab also got in touch about letting us plant our trees in a park but we needed more space for so many trees. That’s how we got this place,” he said.
