Wild fire burns over 100,000 trees in KPK

Over 100,000 trees have been burned down in wildfires in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, officials said on Monday.

“We have yet to conduct a complete survey of the damage,” Muhammad Themasip, project director of the Billion Tree Tsunami,. “Wildfires in the forests is not new. Last year, six people died due to it.”

The Billion Tree Tsunami, an afforestation project, was launched in 2014 to restore forests and green cover in the province. Officials said that over 100,000 trees planted during the campaign have now been lost and more could be burned if the wildfires are not controlled.

The wildfire erupted after individuals deliberately set bushes and trees on fire in Mardan, Swabi, and Swat areas of the province.The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government called in the help of Rescue 1122 and the military to douse out the fires.