Environment story · Forests and wildlife · 31 views
A walk from the northern hills to the southern desert, to meet the forests and wild animals along the way
Scroll to walk across the province. The land changes at every step, and so does the life on it.
Chapter 1 · A walk across Punjab
Walk Punjab from north to south and the forest changes at every stage. In the cool northern uplands around Murree, Kotli Sattian, Kahuta and Kallar Syedan, pine and broadleaf forest holds the slopes. Punjab’s 2026 restoration plan gives these hilly tehsils special attention.
Further south the Salt Range and Kala Chitta hills are stony and dry, covered in scrub. This is the home of the Punjab urial, a vulnerable wild sheep. The province’s first wildlife survey counted 5,128 of them, and 532 were recorded at Kalabagh Game Reserve in 2024–25.
On the plain, a forest can exist only where water is brought to it. Changa Manga, planted in 1866 for railway timber and fuel, covers 5,065 hectares of mostly sheesham and mulberry. It also shelters critically endangered white-rumped vultures, at a conservation centre set up in 2007.
In the south-west the Indus carries the last Indus river dolphins. Punjab’s survey counted 540. They are endangered, find their way by sonar, and are threatened by thin nets, pesticide poisoning and stranding in irrigation canals when the water is low.
The end of the walk
At the southern edge, Cholistan and the Thal are dry country. The survey counted 1,276 chinkara and 1,821 houbara bustards. It was Punjab’s first provincial wildlife count, run by IUCN Pakistan and the Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department.
Chapter 2 · The field guide
Drag a model to turn it through 360°, tilt it to look underneath, and use the switch to compare two conditions of the same scene.
Chapter 3 · The whole province
Zoom out and Punjab’s forest is a thin green ribbon along its rivers and canals, with hill forest in the north. In the 2025–26 fiscal year the Punjab Forest Department reports planting over 40 million trees, 103 percent of its target.
Punjab’s 2026 plan singles out the hilly tehsils of Rawalpindi Division, along with Attock, Chakwal and Jhelum.
Chapter 4 · Dry country
In the south-east and the middle of the province lie two deserts. Green is scarce there, but life is not: Punjab’s survey counted 1,276 chinkara and 1,821 houbara bustards.
Chapter 5 · Counting what lives here
Punjab urials were counted in the province’s first comprehensive wildlife survey, run by IUCN Pakistan and the Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department. Launched in April 2025 with a budget of Rs 530 million, it also counted 540 Indus river dolphins, 92,636 grey francolins, 40,526 black francolins, 345 vultures and 1,070 Bengal monitor lizards.
The way forward
Punjab’s Plant for Punjab plan sets aside Rs 8 billion, with 31 million saplings for the 2026 monsoon, 7,000 acres of forest restoration in southern Punjab, 350 urban mini forests and 200 new public parks.
All plantation sites are geo-tagged so planting can be checked afterwards. Use the buttons to switch each layer on and off.
Province boundary, rivers and elevation are real data. Forest cover and the positions of wildlife markers are illustrative: they show the general region where each place or animal is found, not surveyed boundaries or exact locations. Relief is exaggerated.
Punjab urials counted in the province’s first wildlife survey
Indus river dolphins counted, an endangered freshwater species
houbara bustards counted in Punjab’s dry country
trees planted in the 2025–26 fiscal year, 103% of the target
Sources: Punjab wildlife survey by IUCN Pakistan and Punjab Wildlife and Parks Department (via ProPakistani, August 2026); Punjab Forest Department (via Daily Times, July 2026).
Water, space and protection. A urial needs a hillside that livestock do not overrun, a dolphin needs a river with water in it, and a forest on the plain needs a canal that keeps running.
Planting is the visible part. Keeping what has been planted alive, counting what lives there, and sharing those numbers openly is the part that decides whether Punjab’s green grows.