Dadu’s topography and huge tourism potential make it distinctive from other districts in Sindh. With petroglyphs sites dating back to an ancient period, one of its area called Khudabad served as the capital of Sindh in the Kalhoros era before they shifted it to Hyderabad. A considerable landmass, large swathes of riverine forests (though vanished), hilly plains touching Balochistan, a big arid region, an irrigated command area and a hill station — Gorakh — are some of the peculiarities of Dadu that one could talk about, indicating geographical diversity.

During retired Gen Pervez Musharraf’s regime, the Sindh government carved Jamshoro out of Dadu in 2004, which provided relief to the people of the area. They used to shunt between two extreme ends — Jamshoro on one side and Dadu on the other — for petty administrative issues and routine matters. Area wise Dadu was the largest district of the Hyderabad division then.

Sindh has been the PPP’s stronghold ever since it was founded by Z A Bhutto. Dadu has been PPP’s forte till date though powerful Jatois continue to make their presence felt. Besides the indomitable Jatois, Legharis, Chandios, Pirs, Shahanis, Jamalis, Solangis and Rinds have their share as far as political considerations are concerned. These families dominate the political chessboard in every electoral bout.

‘Around 2,425 acres of forest land is under encroachment due to illegal allotment in Dadu district’s limits. Another 1,122 acres remain under ‘forcible occupation’ of communities for agriculture purposes sans any legal claim’

The Agricultural Census 2010 Sindh Report published by the Pakistan Statistics Division showed that 57,404 agriculture farms were located in the Dadu district. As per the break-up, 11,475 farms had 7.5-12.55 acres, 3,766 farms had 12.5-25 acres, 1,006 farms had 25-50 acres, 168 farms had 50-100 acres, 25 farms had 100-150acres and one farm was over 150 acres. Remaining categories are under one acre, one to under 2.5 acres, 2.5 to under five acres and five acres to 7.5 acres.

Geographically, Dadu is upper Sindh’s right-bank district. The size of the district where rice, wheat, cotton and sugarcane is grown is reflected by the fact that it is fed by two out of the seven major irrigation canals of Sukkur barrage. Among veggies, onion’s acreage is big, varying between 3,500 to 4,500ha annually.

Climatically, summers are sweltering and humid with the mercury sizzling up to 50-degree celsius or a bit up. Dadu is blessed with a rain-fed area (arid region) with fertile soil and is known as Kachhoo in local parlance. Streams and hill torrents irrigate this rain-dependent part where people follow the practice of spate irrigation to grow millet, sorghum, sesame and moong pulses.

With a deep interest in ancient history, noted author Badar Abro has also travelled through the length and breadth of Dadu from 1985 to 2010. He has come up with his book, Kirthar mey chitsali (carvings on stones). “Around 100 petroglyphs sites are in Dadu to reflect its rich ancient past with traces of Buddhism. The area can be used for cultural tourism,” said Mr Abro, who started working on petroglyphs of prehistoric times and Buddhism from 1995 onwards.

The ancient sites and Gorakh hill station offer tourism opportunities. “Real tourism potential, however, lies in the deep valley of Kirthar that awaits development,” he believes. Britishers, he added, identified hill stations Murree, Darjeeling (India) and Gorakh. “While two are known to tourism lovers, Gorakh is yet to be developed,” he said.

Many streams, big and small, emanate from the Kirthar range of mountains to irrigate Kacchho during monsoon to make the landscape picturesque with Kirthar hills in the backdrop. Groundwater extraction is an important source for crop’s cultivation in the arid region. Seasonal hill torrents and streams add beauty to the area as one trudges through the hilly terrain. Nai Gaj — one of the oldest streams — feeds large swathes of Kacchho. Nai is the Sindhi word for stream or torrent. After passing through Dadu, Nai Gaj eventually fills Manchhar lake as one of the freshwater resources.

A recipient of Tamgha-i-Imtiaz for his social work, Dr Sono Khangarani says Kacchhoo has rich fertile land where Kharif crops show better productivity, especially sorghum. “Goats of Kachhoo are quite famous as well,” said Dr Khangarani. He didn’t find any similarities between this arid region of Dadu and the desert of Thar. “People in Kacchho mostly pass a nomadic life. In Thar, people have homes or huts. Kachhoo’s underground is sweet unlike Thar where it is almost brackish everywhere,” he said.

A flood-protective dyke is there to protect the area against massive flooding but last year’s flows from hill torrents had breached the dyke. Rains in the catchment of Kirthar range often become unfriendly. Last year Gaj received plenty of rainwater from its catchment, destroying homes and triggering large scale displacements. Kachhoo stretches up to Qambar-Shahdadkot, Larkana and Jamshoro districts.

Considering the potential of Nai Gaj’s seasonal and exceptional water flows, the Water and Power Development Authority (Wapda) has initiated a dam over it amidst reservations of fishermen as it would deprive the lake of its source of freshwater. The Nai Gaj dam has gross storage of 0.30 million acre-feet (MAF) along with of 4.2-megawatt power generation component. Sindh has to share its cost towards land acquisition. However, it has remained incomplete due to the friction between the PTI and PPP governments.

It was started at a cost of Rs16.924 billion in 2009. In the Central Development Working Party meeting of Jan 10, 2019, the project was recommended for the consideration of the Executive Committee of National Economic Council (Ecnec) at a rationalised cost of Rs46.98bn. PC-I was discussed in the Ecnec on Jan 25, 2019, and deferred due to the decision of cost-sharing by the Sindh government, said Wapda.

Hina Shahid, a research associate of EU-Sindh Union Council and Community Economic Strengthening Support-Government of Sindh poverty reduction strategy, quoted census 2017 figures that put Dadu’s area at 8,034km (5.7 per cent) out of Sindh’s 140,914km. Of Dadu’s 1.55 million population, 1.17m (75pc) is rural and 383,169 (25pc) is urban.

Sukkur barrage’s two main canals — Rice and Dadu canal — feed this part of Sindh. The non-perennial 82-mile long Rice canal brings water flows from Sukkur for paddy cultivation on its culturable command area (CCA) of 519,506 acres while the perennial 132-mile long Dadu canal feeds Dadu in both seasons for the cultivation of winter and summer crops on a CCA of 690,026 acres.

Analysis of three years (2015-16 to 2017-18) average shows that Pakistan’s total rice acreage is 2.79mha, cotton 2.7mha, sugarcane 1.23mha and wheat 9mha. Percentage-wise Dadu’s rice acreage stands at 1.78pc in Pakistan’s total rice area, cotton 0.40pc, sugarcane 0.43pc and wheat 0.83pc.

Pakistan’s average production was achieved at 7.03m tonnes for rice, cotton at 10.84m bales, sugarcane 74.77m tonnes and wheat 25.8m tonnes. Production-wise, Dadu district’s average share of rice in Pakistan in the same period is 2.66pc, cotton 0.55pc, sugarcane 0.37pc and wheat 0.95pc. And within Sindh, Dadu contributed 6.95pc in rice production, 1.64pc of cotton, 1.43pc of sugarcane and 6.45pc of wheat in the same period.

The Dadu district is home to natural resources of oil and gas fields where production process continues. Stats are, however, not available to determine Dadu’s share in Pakistan’s oil and gas productions. According to Naseer Memon, who regularly writes on Sindh’s core issues including natural resources, Dadu’s Johi taluka is a major oil and gas producing area of Sindh.

In terms of industry, Dadu has one sugar factory, 104 rice mills and three cotton ginning factories. The district administration said five companies are currently busy in oil and gas production and until 2019, the administration received Rs238m from them for social sector work under the social welfare obligation head. Of this Rs1144m had been released for different works and Rs93.6m remained unutilised till Jan 2021.

In terms of livestock, Dadu has the second-highest number of livestock population (2m) of small animals including sheep (448,667) and goats (15.57m) according to department’s stats of ‘projected livestock population 2018’. It has the third-highest number (1.85m) of large animals cattle (1.01m) and buffalo (835,606).

Once it had a rich riverine forest belt falling between the two banks of mighty Indus. Powerful families have set up agricultural empires like ketis though which they use land which is intended for the Mithiani forest. Such ketis give immense agriculture output for families that avail the lease at a nominal rate from the Board of Revenue. Forests remain nonexistent for which the land was actually meant for.

“Around 2,425 acres of forest land is under encroachment due to illegal allotment in Dadu district’s limits. Another 1,122 acres remain under ‘forcible occupation’ of communities for agriculture purposes sans any legal claim,” he said. According to another forestry expert, “Vacant fertile forest lands in ungoverned areas are prone to encroachments. Forests serve as a hedge against encroachments and forests could be rehabilitated with creative community partnerships.”

Dadu is hit by poverty. In his Sept 2012 piece “Clustered deprivation: District Profile of Poverty in Pakistan” for the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, veteran economist Dr Kaiser Bengali said 50-59pc of Dadu’s rural population lives below the poverty line. But it is still better placed in stats when compared with districts where over 60pc population lives below the poverty line. The report mentioned that 29pc households have fallen below the poverty line in Dadu which is disturbing.

Published in Dawn, The Business and Finance Weekly, February 8th, 2021