Islamabad was once known for its lush greenery, but the felling of trees across the city for infrastructure and military monuments has prompted local anger and even lawsuits.
Built in the 1960s, Islamabad was planned as a green city, with wide avenues, parks and tree-lined sectors.
Many residents fear that vision is steadily being eroded, with concrete replacing green spaces.
Muhammad Naveed took the authorities to court this year over “large-scale tree cutting” for infrastructure projects, accusing them of felling “many mature trees” and leaving land “barren”.
The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) blamed major infrastructure development, including road construction and monuments, for the mass razing of trees and natural vegetation in Islamabad.
Between 2001 and 2024, the capital lost 14ha of tree cover, equal to 20 football pitches, according to Global Forest Watch.
For Kamran Abbasi, a local trader and resident since the 1980s, it feels like “they are cutting trees everywhere”.
“It is not the same anymore,” he said.
“Trees are life. Thousands are cut to build one bridge.”
Meanwhile, air quality in Islamabad continues to deteriorate.
Pollution is a longstanding problem, but plants can help by filtering dirty air, absorbing harmful gases and cooling cities.
“Forests act as powerful natural filters... cleaning the air and water, and reducing the overall impact of pollution,” Muhammad Ibrahim, director of WWF-Pakistan’s forest programme said.
There were no good air quality days in Islamabad last month, with all but two classed as “unhealthy” or “very unhealthy” by monitoring organisation IQAir.
In recent months, large bulldozers have been spotted levelling former green belts and wooded areas, including those near major highways.
According to WWF and unnamed government officials, some of the cleared land is tapped for monuments commemorating the brief but intense armed conflict between Pakistan and neighbouring India last May.
Other plots were razed to make way for military-linked infrastructure.
“We know that trees are being cut for military-related projects, but there is not much we can do,” a government source said.
“The people in power, the military, can do whatever they want.”
At a proposed military monument site along the city’s express highway, WWF recorded more than 6ha of land clearing last year, with work continuing in 2026. — AFP
