Mahaz News
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Between North and South Korea lies the demilitarized zone (DMZ), one of many world’s most closely armed borders. The 160-mile stretch is barred with fences and landmines and is basically empty of human exercise.
But that isolation has inadvertently turned the realm right into a haven for wildlife. Google launched road view photos of the DMZ for the primary time this week, providing a uncommon glimpse into the natural world that inhabit this no man’s land.
The photos are a part of a venture achieved in collaboration with a number of Korean establishments to mark the seventieth anniversary of the Korean War armistice, which introduced hostilities to a halt in 1953 and mapped out the DMZ, although technically the warfare by no means ended as no peace treaty was ever signed.
The venture permits viewers to take a “virtual tour” with Google’s road view perform, highlighting cultural relics and heritage websites close to the DMZ akin to war-torn buildings and protection bunkers.
But probably the most stunning photos are of the greater than 6,100 species thriving within the DMZ, starting from reptiles and birds to crops.
Of Korea’s 267 endangered species, 38% stay within the DMZ, in line with Google.
“After the Korean War, the DMZ had minimal human interference for over 70 years, and the damaged nature recovered on its own,” it mentioned on its website. “As a result, it built up a new ecosystem not seen around the cities and has become a sanctuary for wildlife.”
The DMZ’s inhabitants embody endangered mountain goats who stay within the rocky mountains; musk deer with lengthy fangs who stay in old-growth forests; otters who swim alongside the river working by way of the 2 Koreas; and endangered golden eagles, who usually spend their winters in civilian border areas the place residents feed the hungry hunters.
Many of the photographs have been captured by unmanned cameras put in by South Korea’s National Institute of Ecology. In 2019, these cameras photographed a younger Asiatic black bear for the primary time in 20 years – delighting researchers lengthy involved with the endangered inhabitants’s decline on account of poaching and habitat destruction.
Seung-ho Lee, president of the DMZ Forum, a gaggle that campaigns to guard the realm’s ecological and cultural heritage, informed Mahaz News in 2019 that the DMZ had additionally grow to be an oasis for migratory birds due to worsening circumstances on both facet of the border. Logging and flooding had broken North Korean land, whereas city growth and air pollution had fragmented habitats in South Korea, he mentioned.
“We call the region an accidental paradise,” he mentioned on the time.
The Google photos additionally present pristine, biodiverse landscapes. Users can use road view to discover the Yongneup excessive moor, boasting huge grassy fields crammed with wetland crops, or the Hantan River Gorge, with turquoise water snaking between excessive granite partitions.
Many voices in each the Koreas and worldwide environmental organizations have been calling for the conservation of the DMZ for many years. But the method isn’t straightforward, because it requires cooperation from each Seoul and Pyongyang.
There has been some progress lately, with former South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean chief Kim Jong Un vowing in 2018 to show the DMZ right into a “peace zone.” The following yr, South Korea opened the primary of three “peace trails” for a restricted variety of guests alongside the DMZ, bringing hikers previous observatories and barbed-wire fences.
However, relations have deteriorated since then, with tensions skyrocketing in 2022 as North Korea fired a report variety of missiles, and as a brand new South Korean president took workplace.
Source web site: www.cnn.com
