KARACHI: The NED University of Engineering and Technology held a ceremony recently to formally launch an urban forest being developed on the campus.

The project has been initiated in collaboration with The Institution of Engineers, Pakistan (IEP), Karachi Centre, involving students of urban engineering.

Ninety fruit trees of 14 different species, including mulberry, java plum, almond, sapodilla (cheekoo), curry leaf, sugar apple (sharifa), tamarind, common fig, Indian jujube and pomegranate have been grown over a patch of 300 square feet.

The patch, according to teachers, has been scientifically developed with proper soil preparation with the help of materials such as rice husk, coconut shell waste, rice straws, natural fertiliser and sweet earth. No chemical of any kind was used.

Such forests did not require external maintenance and become self-sustaining after two years, they said.

Speaking at the event on Thursday, Dr Atif Mustafa, an associate professor at the university’s environmental engineering department, said that while such spaces provided an array of advantages, their major benefit was improvement in the quality of air.

“These green spaces are desperately needed in a city like Karachi, one of the most polluted metropolitan cities in South Asia. Its climatic conditions have changed over the years due to unregulated industrialisation, ill-planned construction and development activities and chopping of old trees,” he explained.

In this respect, he also referred to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set at a United Nations conference in 2012.

“Its objective was to produce a set of worldwide goals that meet the vital environmental, political and economic challenges that our world face. One of the SDGs is to have sustainable cities and communities,” he said.

The concept of such cities involved investment in public transport, creating green public spaces and improving urban planning and management in participatory and inclusive ways, he added.

About the concept of an urban forest, he said that it entailed creating a very dense forest cover on a barren piece of land in an urban setting.

“The forest on the campus has been designed on the principles of Miyawaki method developed Dr Akira Miyawaki in the 1970s. The Japanese ecologist planted millions of trees globally at thousands of locations,” he said.

Sharing benefits of such forests, Dr Mustafa told the audience that urban forests grew 10 times faster than conventional plantation and were 100 times more bio-diverse.

“They have 30 times more green surface area. The entire development process is 100 per cent organic with no addition of chemicals and pesticides. The urban forests retain water, thus assist in recharging the groundwater table.

“They attract more birds and insects, produce native fruits and improve air quality. They occupy empty spaces in an urban area, have 30 times more carbon dioxide absorption capacity and 30 times better noise, and dust reduction ability than the conventional tree plantation,” he said.

Appreciating the effort, NED University Vice Chancellor Dr Sarosh Hashmat Lodi said the varsity alumni had generously contributed to the development of this environmental project on the campus.

“Many more alumni have pledged to develop more such forest patches on the campus and other public locations of the city,” he said.

Later, IEP (Karachi centre) chairman Engineer Sohail Bashir inaugurated the project with other senior engineers.

Published in Dawn, August 4th, 2019