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August 8, 2003
The Giants of Sequoia National Park
Over a million people visit each year the Sequoia National Park to see the largest living thing on earth - the giant sequoia called ‘The General Sherman Tree’.
It is not a solitary, freak tree, to be attributed to an aberration of nature; for, there are 38 groves of the sequoias with each tree standing like a tower of more than 240 feet in height and the circumference of its trunk measuring around 30 feet.
Some banyan trees that I saw in South Asia had much bigger girths; some trees that I saw in the forest of Bandung (Indonesia) were probably taller than the sequoias. But, the sequoia beats them all in respect of its bulk and weight; hence it is rightly claimed to be the largest tree on the planet.
The Sequoia National Park is located almost half way between Los Angeles and San Francisco, on the Western heights of Sierra Nevada hills. It was established in 1890 as a national park and is America’s second oldest after Yellowstone Park.
We drove some 250 miles northeast from Anaheim Hills, where we live, to reach the entrance to the park. The long drive through the famous San Joaquin Valley, with farm after farm of fruit and vegetables on both sides of the road, was as invigorating as the climb up the winding mountain road was exhilarating.
The picturesque mountain road evoked memories of the attractive road to Murree Hills. I must have visited Murree more than twenty times during my stay of as many years in Islamabad. And, on each visit I enjoyed the road to Murree more than the hill resort itself. I gained a similar feeling on the zigzag road climbing up the hill to the Sequoia Park.
One has to see the gargantuan General Sherman Sequoia to really appreciate its enormity. The behemoth is named after the outstanding Civil War hero, General Sherman. And it stands out too among the other sequoia giants in its neighborhood. It weighs about 2.7 million pounds and is considered to be 2,100 years old. Its height is 275 feet and it is still growing. Its circumference at ground level is 102.6 feet. A sequoia has a normal life span of 2,500 years. The presence of an unusually large supply of tannic acid (tannin) in its bark and outer layers of wood makes it impervious to insect infestation. Termites find the pulp unpalatable, if not toxic.
Sequoia, for all its volume and weight, is a brittle tree. Its wood is soft and breaks across the grain when it falls. So, it is virtually useless as timber. Early loggers, nevertheless, chopped down one-third of all the ancient trees. The wood was used to make pencils, matchsticks and even grape stakes for vineyards.
Some conservationists of the late nineteenth century launched campaigns against the logging companies. Their long and unrelenting efforts finally bore fruit when President Benjamin Harrison signed the bill establishing the Sequoia National Park. That ensured the protection of the trees from the saws of the mills and their greedy owners.
The creation of the national parks and forest reserves is a uniquely American invention to limit unrestrained exploitation of the land and forest.
Several other countries of the world have adopted the salutary system. Matter of fact, people all over the world have become conscious of the ill-effects of the deterioration of world environment owing to the depletion of the ozone layer and the increase in the green-house gases. Ironically enough, America is now regarded as the worst polluter of world environment.
The Kings Canyon National Park, which adjoins the Sequoia Park, was created on March 4, 1940. The sequoias within the boundaries of these two parks are now fully protected from logging or any other harmful human activity.
Nature has generously sprinkled all over America unique and spectacular sights that attract hordes of wide-eyed local and foreign visitors. One cannot but marvel at the immense human contribution to making these sights easily accessible and furnished with basic amenities. But the rush to such attractions far exceeds the requisite augmentation of facilities.
In 1903, for instance, only 450 people visited the Sequoia Park. In 2002, the number went up to 1.5 million! The picturesque wonderland has thus become endangered, as too many people love it to death through over-crowding. Conscious of the problem, the National Park Service has already adopted some measures and is considering others to restrict directly or indirectly the rush.
In the case of the Murray Hills, Pakistan’s pristine hill station, the problem is much worse particularly because of the general apathy. By a strange coincidence I saw two write-ups on it by two prominent citizens and writers in just one national daily - The News - on the very day, July 27/03, that I returned to Anaheim from Sequoia Park.
Masood Hasan, a distinguished columnist of Lahore has lamented that the pillage of Murray has been swift and brutal. Every inch of land has been carved up and entire forests have been decimated. He writes in anguish: “Because we are fundamentally a society that only knows how to destroy, we have all colluded in destroying Murray…The evil nexus of estate agents, property developers, greedy commercial enterprise owners, corrupt officials obsessed with minting money, violators of all our fragile laws and bye-laws, administrators from the lowest to the highest who are a party to illegal and environmentally degrading plans and schemes - all of them are guilty of the slaughter of Murree.”
Another eminent writer, Dr. Farukh Saleem, has similarly lamented the imminent implosion of the “Queen of Hills”. He writes: “The Queen has become hostage to influential land grabbers disguised as developers…Over the past couple of decades, some 15-dozen hotels and motels have propped up…at least 75% of these violate Building Bye-laws… Murree’s population was 1,768 in 1901… Current annual tourist turnover stands at between 900,000 to 1,000,000 (almost the same as in the case of Sequoia Park). Murree had no sewage system back in 1869 and Murree has no sewage system now. Murree had little water then and Murree has little water now… The Queen is now a massive man-made landslide in the waiting. Malika-e-Kohsar is falling apart.”
President Musharraf and PM Jamali are occupied with more important concerns. LFO, for instance. The opposition too is badly inflicted by the lust for power. And, the commercial interests keep pursuing their short-term fiscal interests in Murree. All are fired by their particular greed. And, greed has no end. To heck with the Queen of the Hills! (Arifhussaini@hotmail.com)
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