Bid to encroach Islamabad's national park land in Bhara Kahu foiled

Bid to encroach Islamabad's national park land in Bhara Kahu foiled

ISLAMABAD: An alleged attempt to encroach the national park’s land in Bhara Kahu (Forest 8) was thwarted on Tuesday by the environment wing of Capital Development Authority (CDA). Besides removing the fresh encroachment on state land, the CDA also suspended two officials concerned for their alleged involvement or negligence. In January this year, a similar attempt was also made in a nearby area. Sources in the CDA said that this time a boundary wall was being constructed on the state land in broad daylight. “The construction activity continued for the last three days, but concerned officials kept mum. Action was taken only on the intervention of Chairman CDA Sohail Ashraf and Member Environment Abdullah Khurram Niazi,” said an official of the CDA. He said such an encroachment activity on state land was impossible without support of the CDA officials. “Yes, around 16 kanal land adjacent to Murree Road Bhara Kahu worth over one billion, if we compare it with commercial land of Bhara Kahu, was being encroached. On direction of Chairman and Member, our team acted swiftly on Tuesday and demolished the under construction wall,” said Director General Environment Irfan Niazi. Asked why action was taken only on direction of high-ups, the DG said: “We have already taken action against two concerned officials [forest guard and gardner Reserve Forest] while an inquiry has also been ordered.” “During the inquiry, the role of each officer/official will be determined and further strict actions will be taken. Meanwhile, we are also going to lodge an FIR against the alleged encroachers,” he said. Interestingly, no action was taken against the concerned director, who remained “unaware” of the alleged encroachment at least for three days. “As I have already stated, during inquiry role of all concerned officials and officers will be ascertained and subsequently action will be taken,” the DG said. In January this year, in adjacent area, private developers chopped off trees and leveled around 10 kanals to construct a road. After a few days, CDA got the work halted, besides confiscating machinery. The environment wing issued a challan imposing a fine of Rs7 million against the chopping of around 40 trees and over 100 shrubs. On the other hand, the developers claimed that the land belonged to them. In the past, CDA had its nursery in this area, which was later shifted to Chack Shahzad. CDA officials said that the environment wing had a complete record of all forests, including record sheets of 1902 and 1935, in which the entire area of forest/national park is clearly demarcated. “Without involvement of staff, no one can grab even a single marla forest land,” said an official. Talking about the Forest 8 Bhara Kahu, an official said that in this area Murree Road is one of the main reference points besides the boundary markers. If a layman is asked to differentiate forest land and private land, he will do it with little understanding of the issue. Khasra numbers of private land in the area with total quantum of land in each Khasra with strong reference points for demarcation are already mentioned in Latta (cadastral map) of pre-partition, he said and added that satellite images could also highlight legitimate and illegal construction anywhere. Published in Dawn, September 23rd, 2026