There was a time when Peshawar was known as the city of flowers. Perhaps this was due to the many gardens built in the 16th and 17th centuries during the Mughal era.
Professor Sayed Amjad Hussain wrote in the September 7, 2018 edition of The Friday Times that, "At one time, Peshawar was known by its nicknames 'City of Flowers' and 'City of Seven Colors.' In the not too distant past, the arrival of spring was heralded by flower sellers balancing large baskets of roses on their heads and walking through the labyrinthine streets of the old city and shouting 'It is the spring of roses, come and take '. fresh roses ”. Flowers, including roses, were grown in the surrounding villages on the outskirts of the city.
The name of the city is believed to be derived from the Sanskrit name for "city of flowers", Poshapura, a name found in an ancient inscription from Kharosthi that may refer to Peshawar. According to researcher and writer Mohammed Ibrahim Zia, in his book Peshawar Maazi ke Dareechon Mein [Peshawar Through the Windows of the Past], during Durrani's rule in 1809, Scottish statesman and historian Monstuart Elphinston spent about four months in Peshawar. In his memoir Account of the Kingdom of Caubal, Elphinston describes flower and fruit gardens, springs and date trees in the northern areas of Peshawar where dates could not ripen due to cold weather.
Zia also describes that when Zaheeruddin Babar invaded the Khyber Pass in 1505 and stayed in Peshawar in 1519, he saw people working in fields around the city that had trees and flowers.
Dr. Noor ul Amin, professor of landscape and floriculture at the University of Agriculture, Peshawar, notes that the city is still home to several large gardens such as the Mughal-era Wazir Bagh and Shahi Bagh, and Cunningham Park (now known as Jinnah Park) and Company Bagh of the British era.
But in 2016, the World Health Organization (WHO) ranked Peshawar as the second most polluted city in the world. This revelation is confirmed by readings from IQAir, a real-time air quality information platform. Emissions and fumes from vehicles are the main causes of air pollution in Peshawar. Numerous cars, motorcycles and rickshaws line the city's roads, along with heavy vehicles such as trucks and lorries, many of which run on diesel or considerably inferior fuel.
Peshawar traffic police estimate that some 700,000 vehicles enter and exit the provincial metropolis on a daily basis, while 35,000 recorded two- and four-stroke automatic rickshaws roam the streets and add more pollution to the city.
Research on the emission of greenhouse gases in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) by Dr Asif Khan, a PhD fellow at Cambridge University, reveals that the emission of these gases is highest in the transport sector. His research for the Pakistan Forest Institute shows that greenhouse gas emissions are highest in Peshawar, followed by Mardan, Dera Ismail Khan and Abbottabad.
In such a desperate situation, a man has waved the green flag. By blaming Peshawar's steep urbanization, skyscrapers, shopping plazas and markets for the city's ever-increasing pollution, 70-year-old Missal Khan has vowed to make Peshawar a city of flowers again.
"Peshawar was once full of flowers and you could see them on roadsides, in gardens and in houses," he says. "We need more greenery in this city, but there seems to be no respite in this concrete jungle."
Khan, who previously worked as a health and physical education director at Hazar Khwani's government upper secondary school, spent more than Rs 20 lakhs in 2017, including his tip, to establish a kindergarten in Gulbahar, a few meters from Grand Trunk or GT Road. the main thoroughfare of the city. After coining the motto "Your pot, my plant", he has distributed almost 200,000 young flowering trees and plants to people throughout the province, free of charge.
"Nearly 100,000 plants were delivered to Peshawar Town-1, Town-2 and Town-3 at the government's request in 2017," he says. "Unfortunately the government has ignored my requests for a maali [gardener] to help me because I am getting old."
There are a variety of plants and flowers in Khan's nursery, including some evergreen species, as well as grape vines and pomegranate, guava and medlar seedlings.
Khan recalls how he once complained to his father that people were cutting down trees near his house and his father replied, "Don't worry too much about cutting down trees, instead plant two".
All four of Khan's daughters work for the government, while one son is a doctor and the other a businessman in Canada, who takes care of the family, leaving Khan free to pursue his passion for plants.
He has named his nursery after Abdur Rahman Baba, the Pashto Sufi poet. Khan is also known as "pir" because of his passion for Rahman Baba's poetry. He has put up some posters in his nursery of him with Rahman Baba's poetry on them.
Khan admits that he may not be able to make the whole city green, but he wants to do everything he can in practice. He has also published some brochures on climate change to pass out to people and raise awareness about the importance of vegetation for the environment.
Khan wants Peshawar residents to help him on his mission to give the city flowers and greenery that will help fight pollution. "Neither the government nor the people have an interest in cleaning up Peshawar's environment," Khan says a bit dejected. "They prefer to wear a mask and inhale polluted air, but no one will make any effort to plant a tree or flowers for their own benefit."
But Hastam Khan, whose family is associated with the nursery business for the past 35 years, believes that Peshawar still has the potential to grow good quality flowers and can therefore revive its past glory of being a flower city. He is pleased that social media has raised awareness about climate change and that there are Facebook and WhatsApp groups through which young people buy flowers and plants online.
"People should also grow their own food," he says. "Instead of growing fruits and vegetables, people have turned gardening into a luxurious hobby and prefer to grow hybrid plants because importing originals is so expensive," he says. "The government should study the possibility of developing new affordable and environmentally friendly hybrid plants and trees."
Having witnessed Peshawar's beautiful floral past, the two Khan are hopeful that the government will still help them establish district-level nurseries throughout the province.
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