A company in Harbin, the capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang Province, recently damaged six trees and later tried to cover up by leveling the ground with a bulldozer.
Later, officials were able to prove the trees had been damaged and penalized the company for the damage.
Harbin is one of the Chinese cities that have set up computerized data banks to record the relevant information and data about trees and lawns, as part of its effort to protect the environment.
In the past, local law-enforcement units hinged mainly on informants to find and punish people who had destroyed trees.
With the help of the data bank, local officials are now able to prevent and punish tree-damaging activities more effectively.
So far, Harbin's Taiping District has built up e-files for 120,000 trees, including 32 invaluable aged ones, and 54,000 square meters of lawns.
Harbin has 4.71 million trees and local government has pledged to build an environment-friendly garden city.
(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2003)
