Nearly 100,000 trees cut down in Multan to pave way for DHA?

Netizens are fuming ever since it was claimed that over 90,000 trees were cut down in the City of Saints to pave way for Defence Housing Authority (DHA) Multan.

However, it has emerged that the trees were chopped and mango orchards destroyed but not for the military-run locality.

According to a report by BBC Urdu, the multiple videos doing the rounds on social media were recorded last year when culling actually took place. It was carried out by the City Housing Society near Bosan Road among other locations.

Another media outlet reported that the Mango Growers Cooperative Society had also then demanded a complete ban on mango orchard cutting as the growers were perturbed by the rapid annexation of thousands of acres of mango plantation in the district.

But with the videos going viral over the internet with the false claim, the Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) among others, including activists and senior journalists, has expressed grave concern over reports of denuding of mango orchards and conversion of them into an urban property over the past years by DHA, and sought a transparent inquiry into the matter.

Multan & Massacre of Mangoes pic.twitter.com/0b2K8s27rK

— Rauf Klasra (@KlasraRauf) March 22, 2021

Happy DHA in Multan. Who cares about Mangoes 🥭 pic.twitter.com/4EzVhOzaZF

— Laiba Zainab (@Laiba_Zainab) March 18, 2021

Decimated mango trees from Multan’s world famous mango orchards, via @DrOsamaSiddique

Probably cleared to pave way for DHA.

It takes 20 years for a mango seedling to grow into a tree. This is an extremely tragic picture. pic.twitter.com/iS5EBhyMsl

— Ali Aqa Gardezi (@SyedAliAqa) March 18, 2021

Satellite images of the northern approach to Multan. The green boxes represent tracts of agricultural land, the black areas are mango orchards, and the white spaces show the land that has been cleared for housing purposes | #DawnGIS@Xadeejournalist @arifanoor72 @SyedKhawarmehdi pic.twitter.com/wufu2zn06Y

— Muhammad Toheed, Urban Planner (@UrbanPlannerNED) March 22, 2021

“Reckless conversion of mango orchards and farmlands into urban property will have a disastrous impact on agriculture, food security and the environment,” said PPP secretary general and former senator Farhatullah Khan Babar in a statement.

“Food security is far more important than building housing authorities,” Babar said while calling for a transparent inquiry into these reports.