By Zahiruddin
CHITRAL; In the absence of alternate sources for cooking and heating in Chitral, the oak forests in Southern Chitral used as firewood which is one of the most potential threats for its depletion and the habitat destruction in the area.
As per surveys conducted by different organizations including German kfW, the consumption of fuel wood per household per day in Chitral is 20 kg for winters and 10 kg in summer and the total consumption comes to 50400 tons in 57 thousand households in a year while the commercial use in hotels, ovens and offices is not included in it.
The surveys further classified that 60 percent of the wood is oak which is extracted from the forests while due to dry temperate conditions the natural regeneration of oak is never enough to recuperate the fallen trees.
As per information gathered by the Chitral Forest Division, the average extraction of firewood of oak from the forests during the five years (2012 to 2016) is 31000 tons while the figure did not include the localized collection.
Due to its high heat content, oak is the most preferred species of fuelwood and every year thousands of trees of oaks are removed from their natural habitat to fulfill the requirements of the entire district.
The depletion of oak population started with the arrival of Afghan refugees in the early 1980s who harvested it for their own use and earning as well as the practiced continued unabated for two decades and the introduction of modern gadgets and the construction of roads to the forests has accelerated the process.
Haji Manzoor, owner of a wood stall in Chitral town, said that till the end of 1990s, the oak trees were chopped down by chopper and brought to the main road on the back of mules for onward transportation to the market while over the last two decades, petrol machine-powered chain saws have come to be used which take 10 to 15 minutes to cut down a tree and roads have been constructed to the upper most part of the forests.
Regarding the natural life of an oak tree, he said that it takes about one hundred years to be become mature for harvesting while during the course of ruthless cutting, the growing plants are also cut down and the newly germinating oak saplings are trampled.
He said that that the price of oak wood has increased many times and comparing the steeply rising prices of the past several years, he said that in the year 2008, a maund (40 kg) of oak wood was 160 rupees which is Rs. 550 in 2018.
Hamid Ahmed Mir, a conservationist working with international organization, said that the soil erosion and environmental degradation are the natural consequences of the receding oak trees in the forests.
He said that the regular phenomenon of mud flood in the valleys of Bumburate, Birir, Rumbur, Sheshi Koh, Arandu, Damil and Arsoon during the last ten years have devastated the valleys where oak forests had been disturbed.
As a solution to check the cutting of oak trees in the natural forests, the civil society of Chitral has came up with the demand of being provided with cheap electricity for domestic use to replace the use of oak wood for heating and cooking.
The chairman of Chitral Community Development Network Sartaj Ahmed Khan is the forerunner of the demand who contends that to save the environment for degradation, the government should provide electricity for domestic consumption on Re.1 per unit from the newly constructed Golen Gol hydro power station.
