Nasir Zada
Tahira Bibi, a resident of Usherai Darra area of Upper district is living in a room in someone else home after the August floods destroyed her home.
“In summer, we could have stayed even in a tent but in winter we have been forced to seek shelter in a room of someone else home,” she said. She said that it was extremely difficult in winter and even her children were falling sick due to harsh weather.
Tahira said that government has provided her with aid and work on her house reconstruction was in progress. However, she said that she was finding it difficult to procure wood for the purpose while on the other hand she had no share in local forest.
Forest department officials are not allowing me to transport wood for windows, doors and roof of my house, she said. She said that besides the floods also washed away her plot.
“Now I have to purchase a plot of land for the reconstruction of my house,” she said.
Tahira said that her son was a child and she was a widow and had no one else to help them.
Similarly, Abdul Samad Khan, another local also lost his house to the floods and he also facing Tahira Bibi like situation in reconstructing his house.
He told TNN that the wood used in his previous house was lost to the floods and now forest department was not allowing them to cut trees from forest.
“We do not have any wood and forest department is not allowing us to cut trees,” he said.
Similarly, he said that police, levies and forest officials also pester him when he will purchase wood from market. “They raid and confiscate the wooden material readied for the house,” he said.
Shah Zahir, head of Upper Dir forest department said that wood was required for reconstruction of destroyed houses as locals mostly use wood for house construction.
“We have chalked out a procedure for the purpose, which though was lengthy; however, it was necessary to follow it for the protection of forests and curbing smuggling,” he said.
He said that local aspirants of wood are issued a local permit which provided for the request verification.
“An applicant approaches the local range officer with an application for required quantity of wood, which is then verified by local nazim and tehsildar,” he said.
He said that this procedure was a bit lengthy; however, it ensured protection of the areas forests. Not doing so will result into the destruction of our area’s forests, he said.
Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) data showed that 389 houses were destroyed due to the floods in the Upper Dir district and majority were built of wood.
On the other hand, local resident affected due to floods have demanded the authorities make the process of wood allocations a bit easy for them.
