Pak: Lahore anti-encroachment drive draws flak over damage to green belts

Lahore [Pakistan], January 11 (ANI): A major anti-encroachment campaign launched by the Punjab government in Lahore has triggered widespread alarm after residents and environmental groups accused authorities of damaging green belts and historic landscapes in the process.
While the government claims the operation will revive the city's heritage and ease traffic congestion, activists stated that the measures are instead dismantling Lahore's ecological and cultural character, The Express Tribune reported.
According to The Express Tribune, the drive involves clearing roads, markets, pavements and areas around heritage sites to "restore the city to its original form."
However, critics said the large-scale removal of trees and disruption of decades-old green spaces have overshadowed the campaign's intended purpose.
Imrana Tiwana, who leads the Lahore Bachao Movement, warned that the city, often described as the "City of Gardens", has lost nearly three-quarters of its tree cover in just 10 years, largely due to unregulated construction and ill-planned development.
She stated that Lahore's pollution levels have become life-threatening, with the city ranking among the most polluted in the world, and residents' life expectancy has shrunk by nearly eight years.
With the city's green cover now at around a mere 5 per cent, far below the global average, Tiwana stated that protecting trees must be treated as a core public priority.
Tiwana noted that Lahore Bachao, along with HRCP, architects and the Ravi Bachao network, has filed a court petition against indiscriminate tree cutting, especially in locations such as Nasir Bagh.
Courts, she said, have already emphasised the constitutional right to clean air and ordered the safeguarding of more than 800 parks.
She stated that development should be redirected to non-green areas, accompanied by expanded tree-planting programmes and reduced vehicular pressure, The Express Tribune reported.
Government representatives, however, maintained that eliminating illegal encroachments is essential for reviving Lahore's original identity.
They argued that road-widening, parking projects and infrastructure upgrades will improve mobility and business activity across the city.
Yet proposals such as parking plazas at Nasir Bagh and Tollinton Market, restoration plans at Lahore Railway Station and a canal-side train service have raised fears that more trees will be cut, The Express Tribune reported. (ANI)