Buner News 4.64

History
The Buner Valley lies on the Mardan District and Sawabai border of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. It is a small mountain valley, dotted with villages and divided into seven sub-divisions. The Mora Hills and the Ilam range divide it from the Swat Valley, the Sinawar range from Yusafzai, the Guru mountains from the Chamla valley, and the Duma range from the Puran Valley. Until the year 2000 it was a part of Malakand Division - until this division was abolished.
Administration
The district is divided into tehsils. The district headquarter is Daggar.

Constituencies:
The district has three constituencies in the Provincial Assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

Villages:
Buner contains a village Rega near Sowari Bazzar and Pir Baba near the mountains Elum Ghar and Dua Saray Ghar. Kinger Gali is the last border of district Buner which shares borders with Mardan and Malakand Agency. On the border of Buner with Mardan is the village of Ambela. Karapa is the central village of district Buner. It is situated between Swari which is the biggest Bazar of District Buner and Daggar tehsil which is the headquarters of Buner. Sarmalangbaba is just 14 miles from Swari and Daggar and bordering with Mardan District. The present government of ANP is building a new road through Sarmalangbaba which will be the shortest route between Swari and Mardan.

Buner Geography
Geography:Buner lies between 34-9 and 34-43 N latitude and 72-10 and 72-47 E longitude. It is bounded on the North by Swat District, on the West by Malakand Agency, on the South by Mardan District, and on the East by river Indus and Hazara Division. The region is encircled by hill on all side and is separated from Swat by a range of mountains. Elevation varies from 1200 ft in Totalai (Khudukhel) in the South to 9,550 ft of Dosara Peak in the North. The hilly tracks are enriched with mineral which has now become the vivid symbol of business in the area.

The area of Buner District is mostly surrounded by big hills which are covered with pine trees. There are three main rivers namely Barandu, Chamla and Budal and the former flows in the midst of the District. Most of the population is rural and main source of their livelihood is agriculture. Main crops of the area are wheat, maize, tobacco, and sugarcane.

Climate: The climate of Buner varies with the elevation and may be classified as dry sub-tropical. Most part of the year remains pleasant. Moon-Soon rains during summer while in winter; snowfall on the mountain peaks is also common. During Rabbi crop season people grow crops like tobaGoatcco and wheat and during Kharif maize and sugar-cane. The temperature in summer steadily raises up to 44 C0 and in winter it gradually drops and goes down to -2 C0. Rainfall throughout the year is 105 CM with un-even distribution. The average annual rainfall is approximately 30 inches.


Forestry: Total area covered with the forest is32102 hectares. Buner District falls in the subtropical ecological zone with warm summer and mild winter. Generally Forest is very weak. Main forest types are shrubs (acacia, kaha sanatha etc) at lower elevation and chir pines at higher elevation. Local people are dependent on this forst to meet their timber, fuel wood and fodder requirements. About 30 years ago during era of “Wali Swat”, the area was known for its best forests. Those forests comprised of Chir, Samantha, Olea and Phulai etc. at that time, after merger of the area with Pakistan, road network was developed and administration control become loose that led to over exploitation of forest. In addition to that, few locals and non-local an non-local started illegal timber business. Resultantly forest resources were badly damaged in only two decades. Seasonal Ajars (Nomadic grazers) have also played their role in forest depletion. With the ever-increasing population pressure locals are forced to think over the situation but no joint effort/decision could be made in this regard.


Agriculture: The average annual rainfall is approximately 30 inches in the area. Buner is mostly surrounded by high hills, which are densely covered by pine and other trees. Main crop of the area are Fall harvestwheat, Maize, Tobacco, sugarcane, barly and pules. Vegetable production is very low. However potato, ladyfinger, pumpkins, beans, tomato, etc. are grown on small scale. A few types of fruits are also grown in the area such as apricot, mulberry, fig, plum, walnut, wild-persimmon, and apples etc. 61.7% of the land is cultivable.

Buner has a total surface of 172096 hectares out of this 111733 hectares are uncultivable and are classified as forest, pasture or unusable leaving 60,363 hectares of potentially cultivable land. Various projects which previously operated such as B.D.P. (Buner Development Project) etc. had constructed lift irrigation schemes and tube-wells which have increased the production of cereal crops but still the gap between demand and supply could not be bridged.