Public-interest prosecutions help keep plateau pristine

High on the Tibetan Plateau, where the air is thin and damaged grass can take decades to recover, prosecutors are using public-interest legislation to protect Asia's "water tower".

The high-stakes nature of this work played out recently deep inside the Gangdise Mountains National Nature Reserve near Mount Kangrinboqe, also known as Mount Kailash, in western Xizang autonomous region.

There, an unauthorized 51-square-meter brick-and-concrete structure and 191 sq m of fencing had sat on protected grassland since 2014, hidden near the Serlung Monastery area far from main roads.

When prosecutors in Burang county discovered the illegal building during a March inspection this year, they faced the immediate high-altitude obstacle that, at an average elevation of 4,500 meters, frozen ground meant immediate restoration was impossible.

The site is rarely visited except by local herders, said Tsamchung, head of the procuratorial affairs department of the Burang County People's Procuratorate.

After issuing formal recommendations and coordinating with forestry, grassland and natural resources authorities, officials waited for the May thaw to tear down the structures and level the terrain. In June they began reseeding.

"We went back just last week," Tsamchung said. "The ground has been leveled and the grassland is recovering."

A follow-up countywide sweep confirmed no other illegal structures existed. The case was an example of prosecutors across Xizang increasingly using administrative public-interest litigation to police the delicate intersection of environmental protection, expanding tourism, religious traditions and local livelihoods.

Few places illustrate this challenge more clearly than Burang.

The county is home to Mount Kangrinboqe and the lakes Mapam Yumtso and Lhanagtso, an area commonly known locally as "one mountain and two lakes". The landscape draws pilgrims and tourists while also forming part of the headwater system often described as Asia's "water tower".

Its popularity has brought mounting pressure.

During a special campaign to protect the water-source area in June 2024, prosecutors found plastic packaging, drink bottles, food waste and other rubbish scattered along a 1.2-kilometer stretch of the Lhanagtso shoreline.

Some of the waste had already become embedded in shallow frozen soil, raising concerns that pollution could persist for years.

"The plateau ecosystem is fragile," Tsamchung said. "Once it is damaged, restoration is extremely difficult and takes a long time."

The Burang procuratorate opened an administrative public-interest litigation case on July 1, 2024. Following interviews with more than 30 shopkeepers, homestay operators and pilgrimage guides, investigators determined the root cause wasn't merely careless littering, but a severe shortage of waste facilities and sanitation staff. In response to procuratorial recommendations, local authorities installed eight standardized waste collection facilities and four temporary collection points.

To build long-term sustainability, the prosecutors engaged the "Yixinweigong" volunteering platform to enlist local residents to take part in regular cleanups.

Karma Dechen, deputy head of Shungpa, a village located near the lakes, had been volunteering on the platform since 2020, and after the prosecutors put out the call for help, joined in recruiting residents to take part.

"At first, we went from household to household asking people to join," he said. "Later, after they saw the environment really improving, they began volunteering themselves."

Today, more than 20 villagers take part in patrols and cleanups around Mapam Yumtso and Lhanagtso. They normally organize five or six cleanups a month, rising to about 10 during the peak tourist season. A cleanup can last half a day, and more than 10 villagers may be mobilized when rubbish accumulates.

"The most we ever collected filled an entire tractor," Karma Dechen said, noting that environmental stewardship yields direct economic rewards. Shungpa village receives tens of thousands of visitors each year, and its homestays bring the village collective between 200,000 yuan and 300,000 yuan ($27,800 to $41,700) annually, topping 500,000 yuan in peak years, he said.

For prosecutors, the relationship between conservation and tourism is integral to long-term sustainability. Environmental protection is not separate from local development, but increasingly a condition for ensuring it.

The enforcement effort also requires delicate handling of sacred cultural traditions.

Along pilgrimage routes, families traditionally leave clothing of deceased relatives near mountains and lakes as acts of remembrance. Rather than issuing outright bans, prosecutors launched outreach efforts explaining the environmental impact and encouraging alternative ways to honor loved ones.

"The biggest lesson from handling these cases is that we must properly balance traditional customs and tourism development," Tsamchung said.

Prosecutors regularly travel along pilgrimage routes, checking for environmental risks while discussing conservation with tourists, homestay operators and businesses at supply points.

Hundreds of kilometers east in Dingri county, Shigatse, similar tensions surround Mount Qomolangma, commonly known as Mount Everest.

During a 2024 inspection, prosecutors spotted a single set of tire tracks cutting across alpine grassland at an elevation of more than 5,300 meters.

A paved road ran close by, yet vehicles had driven directly over the vegetation.

He Kun, deputy chief procurator of the Dingri County People's Procuratorate, said that in such a fragile environment, it was impossible to predict how long the damaged grassland would take to recover naturally.

Prosecutors recommended that the local culture and tourism authority block vehicle access. The entrance was closed within two months, and later inspections found that vehicles were no longer entering the grassland.

The tire tracks, however, pointed to a much broader question confronting Dingri as visitor numbers rise.

Located at the foot of the Himalayas and bordering Nepal, the county lies at the heart of the Mount Qomolangma National Nature Reserve, a place home to four peaks exceeding 8,000 meters, including Lhotse, Cho Oyu and Makalu.

Tourism has become a pillar of the local economy and an important source of income for residents, He said. But its rapid growth has also placed greater demands on sanitation, safety, infrastructure and environmental management.

In April 2024, prosecutors from Shigatse and Dingri formed a joint team to inspect viewing platforms, the Qomolangma Base Camp area and other stops along major tourist routes.

Their findings revealed widespread compliance failures, such as delayed garbage removal, inadequate medical support, damaged surveillance equipment, 59 tent hotels operating without health or food permits, and 49 unregistered businesses.

Problems were also found in tourist information management, drone flights and the supervision of scenic-area and shuttle-bus tickets.

Rather than treating these as isolated infractions, the Dingri procuratorate opened a series of administrative public-interest litigation cases targeting multiple agencies, including culture and tourism, taxation, market regulation and public security.

The multi-agency push yielded fast results. Market regulators enforced tent hotel permits; tax authorities registered businesses and built an online tax service station in Tashizom township; public security repaired surveillance systems and tightened guest registration; and tourism officials overhauled safety and sanitation protocols.

He said later inspections showed improvements in both environmental conditions and tourism management.

For prosecutors stationed in these remote outposts, public-interest litigation is less about handing down penalties and more about closing regulatory gaps before ecological damage becomes permanent.

That often requires prosecutors to go far beyond offices and courtrooms.

Tsamchung recalled one winter inspection near a glacier when her team's vehicle became trapped in snow and ice. With no food or water, they waited until after midnight before rescuers reached them.

Such trips are demanding, she said, but the landscape they are trying to protect leaves little room for delayed action.

"As long as we can protect Asia's 'water tower' and see the ecological environment here getting better day by day, everything we have done is worthwhile," she said.