More than 325 million rubles worth of damage were inflicted on nature this year by offenders of the nature protection legislation

A total of 12 criminal cases were initiated. The State Inspection summarized the results of work in the first half-year. Within the framework of the state ecological surveillance, during the first half-year 2016, inspectors of the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan carried out 5,154 inspections and revealed 3,992 violations of the nature protection legislation. The amount of fines made up more than 33 million rubles. Such figures were reported today at the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, where the results of work of the State Inspection for Ecological Surveillance were summarized over the first half￾year 2016. According to the Deputy Minister - Chief State Inspector for Environment Protection of Tatarstan, Fayaz Shakirov, owing to the joint coordinated work with the law enforcement agencies - the Investigation Committee, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, the Nature Protection Prosecutor's Office, judicial authorities, a total of 12 criminal cases were initiated for gross violations of the nature protection legislation (in 2015, 8 criminal cases were initiated following the results of the state ecological surveillance), namely 8 criminal cases for illegal quarry development ashore, 3 materials for illegal quarry development afloat and 1 criminal case for pollution of a water body. The damage inflicted on the environment made up more than 325 million rubles. A total of 27 materials are now reviewed by the law enforcement agencies to further initiate criminal cases. The include 15 cases of illegal extraction of common mineral resources (including 1 case of illegal extraction afloat) - Article 158 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Theft", 8 cases of illegal discharge of waste – Article 254 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Land damage", 4 cases of discharge of sewage waters under Article 247 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation "Violation of the rules for handling of ecologically hazardous substances and waste". On summarizing the results, the Minister for Ecology and Natural Resources of the Republic of Tatarstan, Farid Abdulganiev, ordered to enforce control over violation of the nature protection legislation: "Timely detection and prevention of the facts of illegal extraction of common mineral resources will allow to considerably decrease the extent of the inflicted damage. The experience of detection of violations using various equipment that has been gained so far by the inspectors of the Ministry of Ecology demonstrates significant favorable results", acknowledged the Minister. He ordered to exercise special control over illegal extraction of common mineral resources. It was decided to carry out daily raids across water areas of large riversin the Republic of Tatarstan to be able to reveal violations in this field as quickly as possible. Press Service of the Ministry