Hi(gh)!

On 02.04.24 19:07, jr wrote:

> bah, mere kilometres..  </grin>
> 
> I guess I was simply surprised, after all these years of "western soldiers on
> patrol" media images which showed mostly the "drab bits" around Kandahar, that
> there are such lush ("verdant") places.

Yes, these eastern parts of Afghanistan are the only regions still 
reached by the Indian summer monsoon, further west the forests quickly 
give way to what used to be steppe vegetation with interspersed juniper 
and wild pistachio groves, but has been reduced to semi-desert by many 
decades of overgrazing... and also the eastern forests (which exist not 
only in Nuristan, but also in the higher reaches of Khost and Paktia 
provinces further south) have been massively damaged by overfelling 
during the recent wars, for which mostly the Pakistani timber mafia is 
to blame. But overall, the Nuristani woodlands still are preserved 
better than those in Khost and Paktia, thanks to Nuristani culture with 
its centuries-old woodcraft traditions, while the latter provinces are 
populated almost exclusively by Pashtuns, which don't have this 
affection towards wood and forests and thus simply plundered them...

Let's hope that at least in POVghanistan (or other incarnations of 
Khyberspace) the eastern Afghan forests will be restore to their former 
splendour one day!

See you there!

Yadgar

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