Murder of the environment
By Technology Times at September 24, 2011 | 4:29 pm | PrintA- Reset A+
TRAVELLING ALONG Lahore’s canal the other morning was a truly distressing experience as there came into view the logged remnants of decades – old trees that had been so mercilessly hacked down. The trees, where nightingales and mynahs nested, and which provided shelter from scorching summer to the hapless people of this beleaguered city, are being cut relentlessly by plundering earthmovers. Thousands of trees have been felled along the canal in Lahore over the past few years in order to widen the Canal Road, and to make innumerable underpasses on both sides.But this has obviously not been enough as the number of cars streaming on to the roads of Lahore continue to clog even these roads that have been widened at such a great cost to the environment.It is clear that cutting down trees is only a temporary solution and a quick fix. But the real answer to the city’s transport problem is a mass transit system. However, for some reasons it has never been seriously contemplated.Instead, we concentrate on ring roads and yellow cab schemes. And the promised planting of trees, to replace the ones so ruthlessly axed, has never materialised.We are turning this city into a wasteland — both literally and metaphorically. But is anyone listening? Does anyone care? Asad Siddiqi-Lahore
