Lahore is one of the oldest cities in the world, and its origin dates back to between the 1st and 7th centuries A.D. Lahore is quite often referred to as the city of Gardens, and it has some of the most beautiful gardens in the sub-continent. However, as per Global Forest Watch, Lahore has lost 250 hectares of tree cover (i.e. equal to 16% of the tree cover area in 2000) between 2001 and 2024.

There is a dire need to halt deforestation, to afforest and reforest parts of Lahore city so that both urban development and environmental conservation goals can be achieved simultaneously. We must understand that urban development and environmental conservation are strongly coupled and cannot be decoupled, no matter how hard we try.

Thus, our pursuit to achieve the former without preserving the latter will only waste our time, energy and finances invested in this direction. We must ensure that our efforts to realise urban development walk hand in hand with environmental preservation, as only then can we achieve the sustainable urban development goal in Lahore city. Compromising on the environment to promote urban development has neither helped us in past, nor will it facilitate us in future.

We must focus on increasing the tree cover in Lahore city. There are many benefits of afforestation, reforestation and halting deforestation in the capital of Punjab Province. Tree-plantation can increase Lahore’s climate resilience and strengthen it further against climate-related disasters. We can also certainly increase birds’ diversity and population through the plantation of a diverse range of native........

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