Sharing the pictures in a tweet, Prime Minister Imran Khan lauded the martyred firefighter Jamshid Iqbal for his heroic efforts to control Chitral’s forest fire. “These are our heroes protecting our forests for a Green Pakistan.” He wrote in the caption.
On 19 Aug another hero of Forest Dept, Jamshid Iqbal, Forester Chitral Forest Div embraced Shahadat in the line of duty while fighting a forest fire in Chumurkun-Gole Protected Forest Compartment No.01. These are our heroes protecting our forests for a Green Pakistan. pic.twitter.com/GDYNoFUQyz
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) August 21, 2021
Earlier in June, the forest department and the Chitral Levies failed to put out a fire that erupted in the Birir valley forest for two days despite making hectic efforts.
According to locals, wildfire incidents are a common phenomenon in the forest range of Galyat; every year precious trees and wildlife were destroyed in large numbers due to negligence of the concerned department. The dried logs of trees usually cause the spreading of the fire to new areas. So far, hundreds of deodar trees have been reduced to ashes due to these fires.
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Recently, Turkey had also witnessed one of the worst fires erupting in its forests. Similarly, wildfires continue to blaze uncontrolled in Greece and in northern California.
Fires in Greece have threatened ancient sites, annihilated forests, razed homes and even forced the closure of sites like the Acropolis at the peak of the country’s tourist season. In the densely populated capital of Athens, the heat – combined with smoke-laden skies and raining ash – have kept people indoors for days.
According to a recent report by UNICEFs ‘Children’s Climate Risk Index’, Pakistan is one of the 33 countries facing the highest risk to children from the impacts of climate change. Pakistan is ranked 14th on this index (with a score of 7.7), ahead of Bangladesh (7.6) ranking 15th and India (7.4) ranking 26th, respectively.
On the same index, Pakistan has an alarmingly-high climate and environmental vulnerability score of 8.7, making it the most at-risk country on this list from South Asia.
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United Nations has also recently issued their climate report that claims that it is code red for humanity. The landmark study warns of increasingly extreme heat waves, droughts and flooding, and a key temperature limit being broken in just over a decade. The report also claims that such wildfires are likely to increase in future due to the increase in temperature and unpredictable weather conditions.
Pakistan has made efforts to improve the current environment situation by enforcing plastic ban and promoting tree plantation on a national level however, there is still a lot that needs to be done to counter this battle against climate change.