BEIJING: Chinese police handled around 260,000 criminal cases involving the damaging of environmental and resource conservation from January 2018 to June 2023, according to a report by the State Council.

These cases relate to areas such as environmental pollution, the illegal occupation of farmland, offenses related to wildlife and illegal fishing along the Yangtze River, the report states.

The report on the crackdown on environmental crimes was presented on Saturday to lawmakers for deliberation at the ongoing session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

Also submitted to the session were reports by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) on their respective work regarding environmental and resource protection.

According to the SPC report, courts nationwide concluded around 1.47 million first-instance cases involving ecological environment and resource conservation from January 2018 to September this year.

The number of such cases handled between 2018 and 2022 rose by 76.7 percent compared to the previous five years, the SPC report says.

The SPP report states that procuratorates across the country handled around 823,000 environmental and resource cases from 2018 to June 2023.

Among the cases, a total of 65,000 criminal cases saw investigations completed and suspects arrested between 2018 and 2022, 55.7 percent more than during the previous five years, the SPP report says.