PESHAWAR   -  Recent floods in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa had badly exposed the ill-planning of the Ten-Billion Trees Afforestation Project (10 BTAP) damaging several sites where the provincial government had spent millions of rupees for afforestation.

The August 27 devastating floods that started in Mataltan and Kalam valleys in Swat have exposed the poor planning and selection of inappropri­ate plantation sites, river training pro­grams, nurseries, waterlogs, and other schemes.

As a result, 52 plantation sites cov­ering 968 hectares of land in Pesha­war, Kohat, Bannu, Kurram, Bajaur, Or­akzai, and South Waziristan areas were affected inflicting Rs108.530 million in financial losses to the already fragile economy of the province.

Ten Billion Tree Afforestation Proj­ect (BTAP), a flagship project of the Pa­kistan Tahrik-i-Insaf (PTI) government that had a share of Rs27.3 billion of Khy­ber Pakhtunkhwa and was executed on plantation sites at 2216 hectares of land, caused loss of an overall Rs255 million to the provincial government kitty.

According to official data, in addition to losses mentioned in the above sev­en cities, a loss of Rs41.729 million has also been reported from Haripur, Ab­bottabad, Manshera, and Kohistan dis­tricts of the Hazara division.

Damages have also been reported from 60 sites in the Bunner watershed division due to irresponsible selection of different plantation sites, bio-engi­neering schemes, bad land stabiliza­tion, check dams, rains water harvest­ing, nurseries, and water development schemes on 460 hectares of land.

Alike reports of damages to about 96 plantation sites including avenue and moist afforestation were also reported due to bad land stabilisation schemes, nurseries, and bio-engineering from Swat, Shangla, Dir Kohistan, Upper Dir, Lower Dir, and Chitral districts. Planta­tion on 787.23 hectares of land in these districts was also badly affected caus­ing a loss of Rs104.792 million.

Besides these flood-specific losses, there are also reports of irregularities being investigated by the National Ac­countability Bureau allegedly claiming the prospects of much more financial bungling in the project. 

Wajid Ali Khan, former Minister for Environment and Forests, has de­scribed the ill planning of the provin­cial government as one the main rea­sons behind these financial losses.

“BTAP’s plantations and agreements inked with farmers for the provision of land for afforestation were made in haste as these plantation sites were not meant for premature cutting of a large number of trees by land owners and farmers under the mutual agree­ments,” he said.

Mentioning recent media disclo­sures regarding the alleged detection of Rs3.493 billion irregularities during three years (2019-21), Wajid Ali said a thorough probe was needed to unearth if these facts were true.

Meanwhile, a special audit of 10 BTAP had also revealed Rs1259 million as doubtful payments, Rs983 million expenditures fictitious and 36 percent eucalyptus plantation made against 10pc provisions of PC-I resulting in Rs11.96 million losses. 

Since the matter surfaced in media reports quoting the Audit Department, it has also been taken up by NAB and the Peshawar High Court. Therefore, only a proper investigation could re­veal the truth.

Wajid Khan also cited that there was a high risk of misappropriation in the es­tablishment of enclosures as the land under GPS measurement was shown as much more than the actual 16,953.74 hectares of land used for plantation. “These mismatching figures could have resulted in the loss of millions of rupees.”

The wrong selection of enclosures sites has also marred progress on 10 BTAP’s plantations including merged tribal districts as there is a shortfall of 450 million plants by that time, against the target set for June 2023.

Depending on forest enclosures to achieve the assigned target of planting additional one billion saplings by 2023 under phase-I of the BTAP project, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government was also feared to miss the target set for the current year.

Commenting on the situation, Mu­hammad Ibrahim Khan, Project Direc­tor, BTAP said that against the set tar­get of raising 4,300 enclosures in South Waziristan, North Waziristan, Kurrum, Orakzai, Khyber, Mohmand, and Bajaur, 2,000 enclosures were established in these districts. “Remaining 2,300 en­closures were shifted to Malakand and Hazara divisions as tribesmen in some areas of the merged districts were re­luctant to provide land for afforesta­tion.”

He also hinted at the closure of around 500 enclosures in merged dis­tricts mostly in North Waziristan, South Waziristan, and Kurrum due to security reasons and lack of funds. “One enclosure normally costs about Rs180,000 and at least 100 acres of land was required for regeneration of plants.”