HYDERABAD, Aug 31: Sindh Secretary for Forest and Wildlife Mehmood Ahmed Khan has said that the growth of forests in Sindh has been adversely affected by non-availability of water. He said 30,000 forest land had been occupied by influential feudal lords and stacks of summaries had been moved to senior officials in this regard but in vain.

He was talking to a group of journalists at the circuit house on Tuesday after distributing cheques for Rs500,000 each among bereaved families of two forest officers, Mujtaba Shah and Abdul Qadeer Kundhar.

Hayat Kundhar and Jamal Shah received cheques under protest on the ground that the forest department was not complying with orders of the Supreme Court, directing the Sindh government to give jobs to one each family member of the deceased.

He said of six per cent forest inherited by the forest department only two per cent existed in Sindh.

He said help for removal of encroachments from the forests had not been forthcoming from law-enforcement agencies despite repeated calls and the forest department was not capable of retrieving its land.

“We are tired of seeking help from the government including the Sindh governor, the chief minister, the chief secretary and even the corps commander for past several years”, said the secretary.

He said names of influential had been disclosed at right quarters over the years and senior government functionaries were aware of encroachments on forest land but nothing tangible had been done so far.

About setting up a forestry institute in Sindh, the secretary said the province lacked particular environment necessary for such an institute.

He said taking officers to high altitude of 14,000 feet was not joyride but it was in fact part of their training. He said mountains that were located in Shogran were not found in Sindh which made setting up of an institute difficult here.

He said felling of trees had been banned in Sindh and the government had assured that funds to the forest department would continue to protect the forests.

He said schemes for re-forestation were being prepared.

He said of required eight per cent forest in Sindh, the forest department inherited six per cent forest out of which now there existed only two per cent forest.

He said forest had also been destroyed in the riverine belt.

He said corruption had taken place in the Sindh Forestry Development Project funded by the Asian Development Bank but no action had been taken by the NAB which was seized of the matter.

Surprisingly, he said, ADB officials had evaluated performance of the 10 year project which was wound up in 2000 and had described the work exemplary.

About cases of the deceased forest officers, he said there were identical findings of inquiries by the forest department Peshawar, environment and the Sindh forest departments, terming it an accident.

He said the officers had lost direction of the area though they were asked not to lose contact with their group.

He admitted that jobs had not been given to one each family member of the officers though the apex court had given four months time period for the purpose. Quoting SC’s judgement, he said as per the order the jobs were to be given as per qualifications of applicants.

He said now a committee had been formed which was evaluating availability of jobs for two applications, one of them is IT bachelor and the other was civil engineer.

He said even before the SC called for compensation of Rs500,000, the forest department had moved the chief minister for the purpose because as per finance rules only Rs100,000 could be given as compensation. He said the SC had called for setting up of training institute after discussing its pros and cons.