Courts get tough

Since a new judicial interpretation took effect in June to tighten the country's enforcement of environmental protection laws, there have been five major cases against polluters.

Seventeen mineral-processing plants in Kunming, Yunnan province, were ordered to pay nearly 4.4 million yuan ($722,000) in November for illegally dumping polluted water into a nearby stream, turning the stream's water white. The discovery of the pollution in April prompted media outlets to dub the tributary "milk river". Seven people were sentenced in November - two received up to a year and three months in prison while five others received suspended prison sentences of at least eight months.

A district court in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, sentenced five Nanjing Rongxing Chemical Co employees to up to five years in prison in August for illegally dumping toxic wastewater into a nearby river in May 2012. Thirteen people were poisoned after the dumping. The company was fined nearly 6 million yuan.