China sees red after mining company paints bare hillsides green
- Drone footage exposes firm’s botched attempt to improve the appearance of ground stripped of vegetation
Authorities in central China are investigating a mining company that stripped a series of hillsides and then painted the bare ground green in an attempt to “improve appearances and control dust”.
The Natural Resources and Planning Bureau in Sanmenxia, Henan province, said in an online statement on Thursday that it would “punish without leniency” those responsible for the “greening project”.
The authorities were spurred into action by drone footage posted online by news video channel Litchi News on Wednesday showing the bare hillsides covered in the green coating.
The report said the video was taken by a visitor to the city.
An employee at Jinjiang Mining, which owns the mining rights to the area, told the South China Morning Post that the substance was a dust control agent.
“We are now taking other measures to restore the damaged areas,” he said, declining to elaborate.