Motorway, not Margalla Hills: TikToker Dolly defends herself after forest fire videos cause furore

TikToker Dolly, who recently drew the ire of the public for setting fire to a section of the Margalla Hills in Islamabad for a video, has taken to social media to speak up in her own defence. The social media influencer has claimed that the fire was not set in the national park area, but instead in an area on the motorway.

Sharing a video speaking to a local of the area, Dolly can be seen clad in the same silver dress as the original video with a fire raging in the background. There is a brief glimpse of a billboard stating the location in the first few frames of the video, but the camera movement is too fast to make out what it reads.

The local man explains the reason behind the fire, which he claims to have started himself. In the video, he shares that the fire is used to drive snakes out of the vegetation or kill them, since they pose a danger to their children and livestock.

The caption of the video reads, “As you can see in this video, the billboard indicated the place which is motorway and not National Park Kohsar. Listen to the person in this video carefully so that you know the reality. I expect justice.”

After the initial video spread like wildfire over social media, Dolly, AKA Nosheen Syed, was charged on the complaint of the Capital Development Authority (CDA) under wildlife and environment protection laws.

The influencer, with over 11 million followers on TikTok, collaborated with fashion brand Bling for the video. In it, she can be seen walking and posing in front of a forest fire in the background. After severe backlash, the videos were removed from Dolly’s social media.

Netizens were infuriated by the ‘disgusting’ and ‘bizarre’ attempt at virality that could cause lasting ecological damage, risking human lives as well. and Twitter users called out social media influencers to do better and be aware of their responsibility towards the people and the planet.

A user tweeted in response to the video, “We have less than 9 years to combat climate change, or the Earth’s weather will never be the same. Meanwhile this ignorant TikToker set fire to Margalla Hills just for a stupid TikTok video.”