Chinese courts witnessed rapid growth of public interest litigation related to environmental and ecological protection last year after the country's team combating pollution became more diverse and powerful.

In 2020, courts nationwide concluded 103 public interest lawsuits on the environment initiated by social organizations, up 77.6 percent year-on-year, and 3,454 brought by prosecutors, up 82.3 percent, according to statistics released by the Supreme People's Court, China's top court, on Friday.

"Prosecuting authorities have become a major force in initiating such cases, playing a bigger supervisory role on environmental and ecological protection," said Lyu Zhongmei, deputy director of the social and legal committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference National Committee.

According to the Civil Procedure Law and the Administrative Procedure Law, which were both revised in 2017, procuratorates can initiate public interest lawsuits against poorly performing government departments and business enterprises.

Such lawsuits should mainly target the areas of environmental and resource protection, food and drug safety, the preservation of State assets and transfer of land rights, and guaranteeing the legacy and reputation of heroes and martyrs, the laws said.

Since then, public interest litigation on the environment has been rolled out nationwide by prosecutors. Last year, divisions specializing in handling such lawsuits were established in 27 provincial people's procuratorates, Lyu said.

In case details released by the top court on Friday, 15 people were punished for illegal sand mining in Dongting Lake in Hunan province after they were sued by local prosecutors in a case that was heard by the Yiyang Intermediate People's Court in July 2019.

They were found to have no mining permission certificates and their behavior was identified as having damaged water quality, the lake bed's structure and aquatic species, the intermediate court said, demanding they pay for the repair of the environmental damage and apologize publicly on national-level media platforms.

The maximum payment for environmental restoration demanded of the violators was over 8.73 million yuan ($1.36 million), it added.

Lyu said prosecutors using such litigation to fight polluters needs to be encouraged and promoted, suggesting the country explore the establishment of special procedures for such lawsuits.

On Friday, courts at all levels were told to strengthen protection in major areas of concern, including along the Yangtze and Yellow rivers and on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and to stringently punish polluters in those regions.

Yang Linping, vice-president of the top court, said judicial guidelines on biodiversity protection will be issued at the appropriate time and called for courts nationwide to intensify efforts to fight crimes that harm endangered or rare wild animals and plants.

"We'll maintain the ecological balance, serve low-carbon development and beautify rural areas by improving the handling of related cases," she added.

According to statistics from the top court, Chinese courts resolved 253,000 environment-related disputes last year. They included 38,000 criminal cases, up 2.9 percent year-on-year.

To deal with environmental cases more professionally and efficiently, the nation had built 1,993 judicial institutions specializing in handling such lawsuits-including divisions, circuit courts and panels-by last year, it added.