RAWALPINDI, March 8: Landslides and soil erosion mostly triggered by human activity are regularly destroying orchards in the Murree Town, inflicting losses running into millions of rupees on the local farmers, Dawn has learnt.

However, the growing problem would have been controlled to some extent had the Rawalpindi agriculture department launched a proposed rehabilitative project in March 2005.

Survival of a large proportion of people residing in the town’s 15 union councils depends on earnings from produce of these apple, apricot, peach and guavas orchards.

But under the current circumstances the livelihood of this rustic population appears to be at stake.

Talking to this reporter, a farmer said the most affected areas included Loyerbun Kotal, Doonghian, Bandal, Bewal, Phagwardi, Potha Sharif, Tarat, Gohrda Galli and Morra Sharif.

He said many gardens had been rendered uncultivable by soil erosion during the last few years.

The farmer community with the help of a local NGO, Rural Area Development Organisation (Rado), wrote a letter to President Pervez Musharraf in December 2004 to take notice of the damage caused to their land.

The appeal resulted in a thorough survey by the agriculture department about the causes and effects of landslides in Murree.

It was determined in the survey that deforestation, blasting for stone extraction, heavy construction, poor drainage, and earthquakes were the major reasons for landslides.

The slides also made an adverse impact on the fertility of land, besides polluting the environment, threatening the human habitat, contaminating drinking water, minimising self-employment opportunities, spoiling the catchment areas of Khanpur, Simly and Rawal dams, and increasing the maintenance cost of roads.

The survey also paved the way for a proposal on launching a rehabilitative project entitled “Rehabilitation of Agricultural Land through Stabilisation Measures for Land Slides in Murree”.

The plan was sent to District Nazim Raja Tariq Kiani in March 2005 for further action.

The proposed scheme included plantation, small water reservoirs on natural springs, loose stone retaining walls, Gabbion structure, i.e. spur in nullah to check water erosion and check damming to reduce silt movement.

However, when the said scheme could not won departmental approval and landslides continued, Rado on behalf of area people put up a complaint with the provincial ombudsman Rawalpindi region against the non-implementation of the project.

During proceedings in the ombudsman court, a soil conservation officer, while confirming a lapse on the part of the government, said a project “Landslide Control in Murree Areas” was completed in 1991-92 and since then no new scheme had been sanctioned to check landsliding.

Two months after the case registration, the ombudsman directed the Executive District Officer (Agriculture) in Rawalpindi to make sure early execution of the rehabilitation project.

When this reporter contacted District Officer (DO) Soil Conservation Iftikhar Ahmed Qureshi, he said the proposal worth Rs50 million was prepared a long time ago but was put on the back burner due to unavailability of funds.

Director-General Agriculture (Field) in his letter dated November 30, 2006, informed the officials in Rawalpindi that the said scheme would be included in the annual development programme 2007-08, the district officer added.