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.

Of course, things are never as simple as they sound. Once Mr Lohar and his friends were given the land, they could not go about planting the trees on it right away. “We ran into loads of debris and once we started cleaning, we got to digging way deep to get out all the plastic bags, animal carcasses, etc. But while digging out the debris, we were also creating debris mountains in front of the sea. Now those very hills are serving as shields for the saplings against the salt spray from the sea,” he pointed out.

‘We counted 42 different bird species found here; the forest will provide them a nice natural habitat’

“Cleaning up the land has also made us broke. But we are determined,” he added. Some of the saplings are sprouting fresh leaves, some new flowers. Mr Lohar ran around them like a gleeful child. “Look at the little leaves. Did you see that little flower bud?” he asks happily.

“Urban forests, planted using the Miyawaki method, are the best solution to Karachi’s heatwave and other environmental issues. Earlier, in our surveys of this place, we counted 42 different bird species that are found here. The forest will provide them a nice natural habitat,” he said. “Also we noticed three types of lizards here. Two we found in our survey and the third came to meet us itself,” Mr Lohar laughs. “One of our guards found it on his lap.”

The guards have been hired by Mr Lohar for their protection. “We get people here in the middle of the night. They threaten us and tell us to go away. There used to be several mafias operating here such as the land mafia, garbage mafia, water mafia, etc. And now that Environment Adviser to the Chief Minister of Sindh Murtaza Wahab has shown his support in our mission of saving the earth through tree plantation, these people have started saying that we are political people. Some think that we are just using the urban forest as an excuse to grab land here. But, we have told them that we are only here to plant trees,” he concluded.

According to Uroosa Anwar, coordinator of Masood Lohar’s urban forest programme, among the plants and trees being planted by them are moringa, sukhchain, oleander, date palms and wild almond.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2021