Many gazelles have been killed by the great steppe fires in eastern Mongolia. As the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) reported on Tuesday, the animals were not only victims of the flames, but also panicked and driven into the border fence to China, where many perished in the barbed wire. “Several hundred Mongolian gazelles died as a result of the natural disaster,” said Markus Radday from WWF Germany.
Mongolia is particularly affected by climate change. Strong winds and sandstorms have swept across the steppe this year, causing the soil to dry out. According to the WWF, the average temperature increase in the second largest landlocked country in the world has already exceeded the two-degree limit set in the Paris Climate Agreement. Studies in the steppe region showed that the number of extremely hot days is increasing by five to eight days per decade.
Fire devastating for wildlife
The fires this month, which also had to be fought on the Chinese side of the border with Mongolia, covered an area of ??around 2.2 million hectares, the WWF reported. That is more than eight times the size of Saarland. People were not harmed, but the fires were “devastating” for the animal and plant world, according to the nature conservation organization.
At the beginning of April, a steppe fire broke out in the district of Erdenetsagaan in the province of Sukhbaatar, which spread to the neighboring province of Dornod. A nature reserve was almost completely burned down, the WWF reported. According to the authorities, the loss of natural resources cannot yet be precisely estimated.
Last week, more fires spread across the border into China towards Hulun Buir in Inner Mongolia, Chinese state media reported. An additional fire that started in the Russian grasslands has spread across the border to Manzhouli. Hundreds of firefighters were there. The fires could have been brought under control. The Chinese authorities warned that the grasslands in Inner Mongolia are also very dry, so that the risk of fires remains high.
