Published on: August 18, 2025 5:13 AM
Under the open sky, beside a mound of broken timber and mud-soaked memories, 48-year-old Saad Ullah digs through debris with a hoe in same hands once bundled firewood for customers are now desperately clawing through the wreckage of his life.
Just two days ago, a sudden cloudburst over the scenic hills of Bishonai, a small village near Pir Baba in Buner district, unleashed a torrent of water and stones, sweeping away everything in its path.
More than 200 people perished, thousands have been rendered homeless, and the community’s modest economy has been shattered.
Among the hardest flood hit are owners of firewood “taals” which are traditional open storage yards where dry timber is kept for sale during winter months.
Looking for help? Saad Ullah said, “this taal was my only source of livelihood for family,” he said, wiping tears with the back of a mud-caked hand. “I had stored Rs500,000 worth of firewood here — all gone.”
That timber, mostly local hardwood from nearby forests, was painstakingly gathered over months for customers ranging from bakeries and tandoors to marriage halls.
Saad’s wood was known for its quality, selling at Rs700–800 per 50-kilo mound. With natural gas scarce in winters and LPG prices soaring, firewood is a lifeline for many in Buner.
Now, there is nothing left not even the bag of savings Saad had set aside to perform Umrah with his wife next month.
“I kept it hidden in cupboard in my stone made house. When I returned after the flood, there was no house luggage left,” he said with breaking voice.
Dozens of other taal owners in Bishonai and neighboring villages shared a similar fate as their stock washed away in minutes, livelihoods drowned in muddy torrents, thousands families left shelterless. The destruction was very swift, giving villagers no time to react.
“We heard a roaring sound from the mountains, and then it was over us,” recounted Zafar Khan, another wood seller. “All we could do was run for our lives.”
Now, with monsoon rains continuing and winter just months away, the community is staring down a bleak future such as jobless, homeless, and overlooked.
Environmental experts warned this is not just a freak event but it is the price of unchecked environmental neglect and rampant deforestation mainly due to unemployment and poverty.
“Climate change combined with deforestation in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has made such flood disasters more frequent and more intense, ” said Prof. Dr. Shafiqur Rehman, former Chairman of Environmental Sciences at the University of Peshawar.
He linked recent cloudbursts and flash floods in Malakand and Hazara divisions to the rapid loss of forest cover, especially in private and communal lands besides lack of small dams.
Pakistan’s total forest area, as per the National Forest Policy 2015, stands at a meager five percent, with nearly 27,000 hectares lost annually. In KP alone, forests have been under pressure due to logging, encroachments, and decades of conflict particularly during the Swat’s unrest during 2008-2009.
Niaz Ali, former Chief Conservator of Forests in KP, pointed to overpopulation, poverty, and timber smuggling as major drivers of deforestation and warned if not checked more such floods will occur in future.
“In 1947, our population was 37 million. Today it’s over 223 million and rising. If we don’t adapt alternative energy sources, we will lose what little green cover we have left,” he warned.
He also lamented the long-standing issue of Afghan refugee influx and lack of global support for forest restoration in Afghans inhibited areas in KP.
Meanwhile, enforcement efforts existed as the KP Forest Force has powers akin to police and can seize timber, arrest offenders, and even use weapons in self-defense.
However, former Environment Minister Wajid Ali Khan said the system is still plagued by political distractions and weak implementation of laws.
“Instead of focusing on timber mafia and regulating the firewood trade, the previous governments were more invested in political agitation,” he said.
Despite the scale of the flood disaster in Buner, residents said that no substantial relief has arrived yet.
“There’s been no compensation, no tents, not even drinking water. We’re burying our dead with borrowed shovels and business shattered,” said another flood affected Jamil Khan, a resident of Pir Baba Buner.
He said two of his wood stalls and marble stores shops were destroyed in the yesterday flood as no relief received from any quarter yet.
As the KP government scrambles to assess damages, many fear their plight will be forgotten in the news cycle and another community swallowed by nature’s fury and bureaucratic inertia.
