News
Monday, September 02, 2013
Industries using mangrove wood to beat natural gas shortageBy Amar Guriro
KARACHI: After frequent power shutdowns in the country, now, the shortage of natural gas has not only affected the transport sector, but also the industries, which run on natural gas. Hence, the greedy capitalists have started using mangrove wood to keep their factories running during gas loadshedding; thus putting the natural environment at stake.
According to the local fishermen off the city’s coastline, since the shortage of the natural gas was affecting the industries in Korangi Industrial area, industry owners started using mangrove wood as fuel for their production units. To fulfil their requirements, timber mafia has started cutting mangrove forests from the coastline, and also from the islands near the city.
While travelling from Ibrahim Hyderi, one of city’s oldest coastal settlements, towards the twin islands of Bhundar and Dingi, one can see thick forests, which are locally known as Keejhar forests; but while visiting the islands in person, one finds they are not as thick forests as they seem to be from outside. The timber mafia has almost removed entire trees comprised on mangroves.
The local influential landlords send their workers to these islands, where they cut down the trees and keep them lying until they get dried, and later the wooden is taken to the coast through boats.
Already present on the coastline, the land mafia has also begun removing the mangrove forests to reclaim the sea, and use the land for a residential purposes ( leading to further destruction of these forests.
Allah Bachayo, a resident of Ibrahim Hyderi told Daily Times that fishermen are the worst victims of the vanishing mangrove forests, along the coastline. The increasing prices of the fuel used for boats; reduced fish catch due to the pouring of poisonous effluents in the sea, and now mangrove cutting has pushed watermen into extreme poverty.
“Now we have to go into deep sea for routine fishing and sometimes, we cross the sea limits and get arrested by the Indian Navy,” said Bachayo. The official record says that since 1994, the Indian Navy has arrested hundreds of the fishermen from Sindh, out of which 66 are still detained in Indian jails. Tahir Qureshi, Programme Director of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Pakistan said that not only the historical mangroves, the timber mafia has cut down other forests too along the islands. “And the wood is being used as fuel in the industries,” he said.
After contact, an industrialist in Korangi Industrial Area, Muhammad Riaz while talking to Daily Times, admitted that most of the industries are using wood to keep boilers running when there is no natural gas. “We pay huge amounts to the labour staff and need to fulfil the orders; but since the time when loadshedding began, we are suffering huge losses. Hence, we’ve started using wood to keep our industrial units running. We get it from the markets, and are not aware if it is from mangroves or any other forest types,” he said.
The mangrove forests along the 129-kilometer long Karachi coast, one of the most important coasts of Indus delta, are already on the verge of destruction due to an increasing level of marine pollution, and pouring of domestic and industrial waste into the sea; but recently, the dangerous trends of cutting these important trees off the islands has also begun. And despite the tall claims made by the Sindh government to protect mangrove forests, the practice continues, without anyone paying heed.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk