Russia declared a state of emergency after a power plant spilled 20,000 metric tons of oil and diesel fuel into a river in the Arctic Circle. The possible cause: melting permafrost due to climate change.
In Taymyr the coastal tundra - marshland with permanently frozen subsoil - is a nesting ground for migratory birds, which fly there for the brief Arctic summer.
Polar bears sometimes come ashore on Taymyr while, inland, vast reindeer herds roam and snowy owls hunt lemmings.
Along with the pollution threat, reindeer are now seriously threatened by poaching, says Alexey Knizhnikov, a conservationist at WWF Russia.
"Developing new projects in such an ecologically sensitive area is madness, in our view," he told the BBC.
