HOHHOT, June 7 (Xinhua) -- About 45 percent of north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region has been affected by an increasing drought, local authorities said on Sunday.
According to the regional meteorological bureau and the regional department of agriculture and animal husbandry, the drought area in the region has reached 44.36 million hectares.
The central and western parts of the region gripped by the drought have seen less rainfall since May, compounded by increasing temperatures, the bureau said.
The drought remains severe in more than half of the pasturing areas across the region, it said. Enditem
