Due to enough attention paid to the protection of environment the construction of the Qinghai-Tibet Railway did not affect the life and proliferation of the Tibetan antelopes. The pregnant female antelopes to cub this year came to over 30,000 in number, hitting a record in history, said Director of the Hoh Xil State Nature Reserve.

The recent investigation conducted by the State Administration of Environment Protection on the work of environment protection along the construction site of the Qinghai - Tibet Railway indicates that the water environment on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau hasn't seen any obvious change since the project started in June last year. And the ecological vegetation and wild animals are under effective protection.

The State Administration of Environment Protection entrusted the Qinghai Provincial Environment Protection Bureau to set a control and supervision over the environment protection work along the section between Golmud and Dangla Mountain of the Qinghai - Tibet Railway. For several months on end the center made a ceaseless supervision on the water quality of the rivers at the water-head of the Yangtze River and so far hasn't found any obvious change, which remains as good as that before the beginning of the railway construction.

A full confirmation was given on the ecological environment protection of the Qinghai - Tibet Railway when the State Administration of Environment Protection and Ministry of Water Conservancy and other state organs were inspecting the work there.

An effective system for environment protection was formed under the unified command of the general headquarters of the construction project, said Lu Chunfang, commandant of the headquarters. Last April, the construction unit of the railway signed a letter of responsibility with the Qinghai Environment Protection Bureau. It is the first letter of responsibility for environment protection in the history of railway construction in China.

Lu said, the construction of the railway has put environment and water protection into the blueprint for organizing the fieldwork, which is part of the prerequisites for the launching of the project. The construction unit resorted to the technique of causing no mud pollution of the river water when drilling for laying underwater piers and fetching sand along watercourses. In addition the unit also promoted the use of non-phosphate detergent and no sewage from the work-site and life was drained away without treatment.

The construction of the huge railway-bridge striding over the three big rivers of the Clear-water and Qumar was taken up by the 12th Bureau for China Railway Construction. They used 48 underground drilling machine to do the job in frozen earth zone. This environment protection measure has cost 100 million-yuan more. Besides, the construction unit also used oil-burning boiler for warming-up or the solar energy for environment protection. In the tunneling work at the Fenghuo Mountain they resorted to such method of work as wet-spray of cement and wet-drilling so as to reduce the burst of dust to the largest extent.

As briefed, in order not to affect the stay and proliferation of the rare animals, an important measure for ecological protection, the best possible way has been used to make a detour round the state nature reserve in the designing of the railway. And every means possible has been tried to reduce noise during the fieldwork so as to avoid alarming the wild animals and with passages built at wherever the wild animals often pass by. Up to now, over 30 passageways have been established at the nature reserves in Hoh Xil of Qinghai and Changtant in Tibet for the wild animals to migrate without being alarmed.

Opinions were sought for not only from the herdsmen but also the verifications of experts for wild animal protection when defining the number of passages to be opened and their locations for the wild animals to migrate, said the director of the bureau. The passages are mainly distributed in areas where such rare animals as Tibetan antelopes and wild yaks often haunt so as to ensure their free migration.

(People's Daily November 5, 2002)