Harking Back: Ancient sacred forest and how we erased its history

Once upon a time in the late Vedic period, as the epic Rigveda (book 7:83-4-8) tells us, there were dense forests around the city of Lahore which Prince Bharata defended against the invading kings. This is recorded in Mahabharata as the Dasanrajna Yud.

Let us skip centuries to the times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh who made sure that beyond Ichara the forests till the British-occupied Ferozepur were dense. According to the ‘daftars’ recorded by Lala Sohan Lal Suri the Sikh monarch had made it clear that “beyond Ichara the forests defend us and are ancient and sacred providing us clean air”. Then come the British and they undertook two major exercises of consolidation. After Lahore’s military cantonment they expanded towards Ferozepur as that contained the largest ammunition dump in their new western-Indian possession.

The notorious English soldier Captain William Hodson, cut through the forests at Rakh Kot Lakhpat and Bhabara facing resistance from local villagers, one of whom he shot dead. He built the Ferozepur Road as we today know it. This Cambridge-educated soldier – Trinity College to be exact - was to go on to arrest the Mughal emperor Bahadar Shah Zafar and shoot dead his son and nephew at Humayun’s Tomb after the siege of Delhi ended in 1857. So the British were the first to tamper with the forests beyond Ichara.

Then after the First World War and the expansion of Lahore’s cantonment towards the Walton cantonment, they built the city’s first aerodrome, or airport as we now call them. The British ‘environmental’ report states that if the forests of Rakh Kot Lakhpat and Bhabara are decimated beyond half, the air of Ichara and Lahore will be badly affected. So we had the Walton Aerodrome.

In that period Sir Ganga Ram, that far-sighted engineer, planned and built Lahore’s Model Town, providing the guarantee that “less than half the existing trees of this immensely beautiful ancient forest would remain intact”. That promise he kept. Walton Aerodrome was the place where Muhammad Ali Jinnah landed in his ‘free’ Pakistan on the 14th of August 1947. All these matters and promises ended come ‘freedom’.

In Pakistan, the men in arms started making housing their most profitable pastime. Beyond the cantonment as more and more land fell to their ‘schemes’, the Walton Aerodrome and the sacred forest was no exception. The building of Gulberg saw them occupy the north-western portion of the aerodrome and soon a Falcon Housing Society came about. To its east another such colony came up and soon came about one massive grab and loot situation. Let me quote from official documents now so that nothing can be denied. A meeting of the Punjab Government held on November 3, 2020, at the chief secretary’s camp office issued its ‘minutes’ on 06.11, 2020 vide document SO(HUD)2-16/2019 (Tavaan) which clearly marked the area of the Lahore Walton Airport as demarcated as the Civil Aviation Authority possessing 1,176 kanals, 13 marlas and 121 sq ft, the Pakistan Air Force 1,130 kanals, 19 marlas and 196 sq ft, the Pakistan Army 925 kanals, 12 marlas and 061 sq ft. and the Army Housing Society approximately 600 kanals.

The meeting clearly agreed that the first step would be that land in possession of the CAA would be handed over to the Tavaan Project once, repeat, once a new piece of land was found for a new airport and appropriate infrastructure was in place. Also that all the land rented out for plant nurseries would be shifted to a similar land to restart their green project. The trees on the land would not be cut, this assurance was clearly given. What happened just last week was quite the opposite. So a Cambridge-educated person cut through the ancient forest. What an Oxford one has undertaken is before us.

This means that out of the original over 3,400 kanals, or 425 acres of forest land with an amazing ancient history, only 1,176 kanals is with the CAA. The remaining has been taken over to provide the armed forces with housing profits.

Now let us see what this (Tavaan) is. So far we know from a report last Monday in a national daily, the prime minister presided over a meeting that saw him in a great hurry to oblige this Tavaan Group of Abu Dhabi. When a Lahore source contacted the LDA under which the new so-called Central Business Development Authority is to operate, the gent there said: “It is secret”.

This, naturally, deepened the mystery, that is till a Middle East newspaper described it as an enterprise of the ruler of Abu Dhabi. So Tavaan is really the once dropped Mubarak project of the ruler of this oil-rich state. But then for us what is important is that the Walton Business Hub has a budget of US$1.2 Billion. It is a 70/30 partnership with the government of Punjab, meaning that our rulers have to come up with US$360 million as partners. Just where will this huge sum come from?

Respected experts tell us that this project promises to create a massive traffic mess on Gulberg Main Boulevard and Ferozepur roads. Plus no sewerage system exists for this project, what to speak of the electricity and water needed. But worse of all it would be bang in the middle of residential buildings all around them. Why locate a business hub in the middle of a peaceful residential area? Have the local residents agreed? The people, it seems, do not matter.

Now we all know that in an airport area no double-storey building is allowed. So just how this Tavaan Group has managed to get permission for a 500 feet tall building baffles the mind. To add to the shocks they have an application for a 700-foot building too. Amazing how money overcomes principles.

The best thing that the official documents tell us, so this is first-hand information, that the Walton Business Hub will be Abu Dhabi controlled. The original idea was to name it the Mubarak Building, after the ruler of Abu Dhabi. The initial idea was to use the Lahore Omnibus Service premises on Ferozepur Road Bus Depot after past bureaucrats destroyed the excellent double-decker bus service, leaving Lahore without any public transport system. What an achievement!

Then invisible gears were applied and the CAA stopped objection to a 500-foot height limit. Once the airport was “moved” – if it ever is - they would have a 700-foot permission. The Taavan Group is to own and build it. The government-owned Bank of Punjab is to handle the finances. Does this mean that 1,700-plus kanals will be mortgaged even though it belongs to the CAA? No wonder it is called the Central Business Development Authority.

But most importantly, what about the environmental impact report? Sadly, that does not exist. Who cares? So without another civilian airport, without adequate transparency concerning sources of money and ownership, without any approved plan, without any history of need, without business permission in a residential area, just what is going on?

Last week all the green nurseries were destroyed. Officials claim an alternative site is being provided. What about the old trees about to be felled. Our crafty bureaucrats promise otherwise. But then can they really defy our politicians from breaking the law. The least they can do is tell us just why the last traces of this ancient sacred forest have been destroyed … or should the coming protests be against the new Arab owners of our land.