Picture 1: Under the moonlight, with the help of flashlights, several Chinese peasants from neighboring provinces are digging herbs in Hulun-Boir grasslands of eastern Inner Mongolia.

Picture 2:  Bataa, a helpless Mongolian herder from Old Barag Banner, Hulun-Boir League, Inner Mongolia, told the correspondent that his grazing land has been largely destroyed by these Chinese illegal herb diggers and severely turned to desert.

Hulun-Boir grassland is the well-known Bupleurum (or Chinese Thorowax Root) and Radix Sileris growing area. Since this summer, large groups of Chinese peasants from neighboring provinces of Harmuren ( Hei Long Jiang ) and He Bei have poured into Hulun-Boir grasslands and illegally dug herbs, resulting in severe damage to the already drought-stricken weakened ecosystem. Statistics show that every digger digs up and gathers at least 10 to 15 kilogram herbs in 300 square meter grasslands per day. After their leave, one can find that the vegetation of the affected areas was seriously destroyed and the entire grasslands look like deeply plowed farmlands. Helpless local herders call these Chinese peasants “herbal locusts”.

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