Multan's mangoes and multinationals.

History has bestowed Multan with many gifts: it is known as a city of saints, the town has been continuously inhabited for more than 2,000 years and located in an area dating back to the Harapan civilization - it has always been a part of world-acclaimed Indus Civilisation. Not only history, but its natural endowments have been unique as well.

Falling on the bank of Chenab, after the confluence of two more rivers, its riverine area is huge and its land is enormously fertile. Benefitting from these gifts, the city earned the distinction of being the agricultural capital of Punjab, feeding the world with the finest varieties of mango and historically driving the textile industry with premium cotton.

However, Multan's modern woes are daunting. It suffered geographical losses when three districts were created out of it - Vehari in 1976, Khanewal in 1985 and Lodhran in 1991. What is left of Multan, for decades known as a 'rural city', is now transforming into an un-planned urban jungle - threatening its agricultural identity.

Hundreds of housing schemes around it are wiping out thousands of acres of mango orchards and cotton fields. Despite being on the bank of a river, the district's water level is dropping at a breathtaking pace - threatening its agriculture like never before.

The land encircling the city was once orchards but now housing societies run for miles. The projects would take many years to get fully inhabited but the loss to decades-old orchards is done

Official data tells the true story of urban expansion. In the last few years, 185 illegal schemes have come up along will 38 legal ones around the city. The Defence Housing Authority (DHA) is leading the way: already perched on over 15,000 acres, it is planning an expansion at the same level. Wapda Town has also cost the city another few thousand acres. Other guzzlers like Bahria Town are following the suite and bulldozing thousands of acres of orchards out of existence. Where these giants pause, hundreds of small landowners start with smaller schemes.

'This entire land was once mango orchards, encircling the city. Now, housing societies run miles after miles. These societies would take decades to get fully inhabited but the loss to decades-old orchards is done,' explains Dr Muhammad Asif, vice-chancellor of Nawaz Sharif University of Agriculture. These lands were fully developed in an agricultural sense, as peri-urban areas always are because of developed infrastructure - access...