Team sent to probe pollution in desert

China's top environmental watchdog has dispatched a team to investigate a serious case of pollution on the edge of one of the country's biggest deserts.

The thick, black pollutants were discovered by a group of environmental volunteers on Thursday in a forest that had been planted with trees for papermaking.

The volunteers were conducting a survey near Shapotou National Nature Reserve in Zhongwei, Ningxia Hui autonomous region, when they saw the pollutants on the edge of Tengger Desert.