Quake-hit Sichuan to rehabilitate panda's habitat

September 18, 2009 08:28 pm | Updated 08:29 pm IST - CHENGDU:

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, giant panda Lou Sheng stays with her twin cubs at the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Breeding and Research Center in Zhouzhi County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

In this photo released by China's Xinhua News Agency, giant panda Lou Sheng stays with her twin cubs at the Shaanxi Rare Wildlife Breeding and Research Center in Zhouzhi County, northwest China's Shaanxi Province.

China's southwest quake-hit Sichuan Province will invest 600 million yuan (about 88 million U.S. dollars) to rehabilitate a 107,000-hectare habitat for wild giant pandas, local authorities said on Friday.

About 5 million yuan of the investment had been approved by the Central government, said an official with the provincial government.

The rehabilitation plan covers 60,000 hectares of the habitat and 2,000 hectare of adjacent fields giant pandas are likely to move about, which had been destroyed by the devastating earthquake on May 12 last year. Another four hectares of new habitat will be explored, said the official.

Before the quake, 1,206 wild giant pandas, or 80 per cent of the country's total, live peacefully on reserved areas in Sichuan. No wild giant panda died during the quake, the official said.

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