The first non-governmental environmental protection organization in Beijing has opened the first hotline in the city to offer information and legal aid to victims of pollution.

Up to now, more than 120 residents have called 6226-7459 for consultation on environmental protection regulations since the line went into service on November 1, said Prof. Wang Canfa, head of the center and a noted environmental law expert at the China University of Political Science and Laws (CUS).

The center recently decided to pay the suing fare for a fruit farmer in Chifeng City in the neighboring Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. A large area of the farmer's apple trees died from the pollution of a nearby copper factory.

All the workers in the center are volunteers, including legal experts and professors, and students from Beijing and Qinghua universities, and the China University of Political Science and Law (CUS), said Wang. (Xinhua)