Karachi, Pakistan’s commercial centre, is one of the most polluted metropolises in South Asia, thanks to the whims of unplanned growth and unchecked industrialization.
However, there are still those working to make Karachi a more environmentally friendly city, doing what they can with their limited resources.
With a population of almost 20 million people, the port city has limited room for the thousands that arrive each year in the hope of a better future
Sabir Gul, for example, has taken it upon himself to look after over 2,000 plants and trees in a posh neighbourhood in Karachi’s eastern sector.
Gul, a retired gardener in his early 70s, is involved in a tree-planting initiative organised by Al-Khidmat Foundation, one of the country’s major charitable organisations, that began four years ago.
He looks after the plants and trees at Mohammad Ali Society, which has transformed over the last two decades from one of the city’s cleanest and greenest residential districts to a tangle of high-rises and gleaming structures.
Gul, who worked as a gardener at a school in Karachi for 25 years before joining the foundation as a volunteer in 2010, stated, “My love for plants motivated me to join this effort.”
