The tree meant to give Islamabad quick shade became its March problem
When the new capital was built in the 1960s, a fast-growing species was planted en masse so the freshly drawn city would get shade and greenery as quickly as possible. Six decades later, that same paper mulberry sends March pollen counts among the highest ever recorded in any city, and authorities have spent several seasons felling it by the thousand.
LMLucía MontesWorth Knowing editor — Meaning & Cultural Context
7 August 2026· 7 min
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Silhouette of a leafless paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera) against a clear sky: the species planted for its fast growth, now the most-felled tree in Islamabad.Nevit·CC BY-SA 3.0
Field notesThe essentials, before you go
Pollen season
March, peak in the third-fourth week Levels drop quickly from April onward.
The recorded peak
Up to 40,000 grains per m³ a day Among the highest pollen concentrations ever measured in any city.
The tree
Paper mulberry, non-native Introduced from East Asia in the 1960s as a fast-shade tree.
If you have allergies
Avoid March or bring medication Antihistamines and a rescue inhaler if you have diagnosed asthma.
01 A tree chosen for how fast it grows
The Margalla hills and the greenery surrounding the city. It was precisely that goal of fast greenery that led, in the 1960s, to choosing a fast-growing, non-native species.Zain.3nov / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0·CC BY-SA 4.0
The tree planted to speed up the city ended up setting its own calendar: one of respiratory crises, not of blossom.
04 Thousands of trees felled every season
The decision has not been free of controversy: some defend the value of mature trees against the promise of new saplings that will take years to give equivalent shade. But the health argument, backed by the asthma studies and by an expert committee formed after a public-interest lawsuit, has carried more weight.
It is worth knowing because it changes how you read the city's greenery. The trees shading Islamabad's avenues are not an accident or a spontaneous jungle: they are the solution to a 1960s problem that, without anyone planning it, generated an entirely different problem sixty years on.
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