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 toba
cco 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
wheat, 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.
Livestock
No | Livestock | Population |
1 | Asses | 12749 |
2 | Buffalos | 83395 |
3 | Camels | 762 |
4 | Cattle | 101006 |
5 | Goat | 70053 |
6 | Horse | 507 |
7 | Mule | 2723 |
8 | Poultry | 504223 |
9 | Sheep | 10200 |