Kurdistan
Villagers cut down the nearly 100-year-old tree in Nawe village on January 17, 2021.Photo: Nawe Village Facebook page
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Villagers in Halabja’s Khurmal sub-district cut down a nearly 100-year-old mulberry tree in the grounds of a mosque on Sunday, claiming it blocked the mosque’s water source.
“I am 80 years old. The tree had always been there. It’s roots had cut off the water … so we were forced to either cut off the mulberry tree or break off the cement and install another pipe, and that will only damage the people,” Muhammed Mustafa, a resident of Nawe village told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat on Monday.
“We pray, we need water,” said Mustafa, adding that "nearly 200" people pray in Nawe’s mosque on Fridays.
“This mulberry tree was in the way, its roots were blocking the water and it has also broken the pipe. We used to clean it two or three times a year for the past five years, but it kept breaking it and damaging it. That’s why we cut it,” said villager Akram Ahmed.
Khurmal forest police have filed a legal complaint, saying that “there could have been other solutions if they had informed us or the relevant authorities.”
“Removing the tree is a disaster,” said the head of Khurmal Forest Police Bahman Mohammed.
“It’s not just an incident. It’s a disaster for the environment, for the culture of the area, because when you plant a tree, it needs six to seven years of care and attention… it wasn’t bothering anyone,” he told Rudaw’s Shahyan Tahsin in an interview on Monday.
According to Ibrahim Hama Saaid, a mullah from Halabja, “destroying the environment and burning it” is a “sin” mentioned by the Prophet Mohammed.
“Cutting off one tree will land the perpetrator’s head in hellfire,” he added.
According to the board of Environmental Protection and Improvement of the Kurdistan Region, those rooting out trees and saplings, plants and grass on public property face a jail sentence and fines between 150,000 to 200 million Iraqi Dinars (103 to 1,373 USD).
Nearly 32.5 square kilometers (32,413 dunams) of land were burned in Erbil governorate and 546 people arrested for cutting or burning trees in 2020, according to the provincial forestry police.
More than 2.2 million acres of Kurdistan Region woodland was lost between 1999 and 2018, destroyed by wildfires and deforestation. In recent years, Iranian border guards, Turkish airstrikes, and Islamic State militants have set thousands of acres alight.
Initiatives have now begun to plant new oak trees in the area.
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