Courts call for more vigilance against pollution

Environmental organizations and prosecuting authorities have been called upon to improve their role in dealing with environment-related cases, as the number of disputes has increased rapidly, an official of China's top court said.

Since Jan 1, when the new Environmental Protection Law came into effect, Chinese courts in 15 provinces and municipalities, such as Guizhou, Gansu and Beijing, have handled 48 environmental public-interest cases, including three administrative ones launched by prosecutors, Wang Xuguang, deputy chief judge of the Environment and Ecology Tribunal under the Supreme People's Court, said on Tuesday.

There were 65 environmental disputes in the public interest from 2007 to 2014, "which means our awareness to protect the environment and solve related problems in legal ways has improved", Wang said.