A farmer in Guanghan, Sichuan province, brought a lawsuit against the provincial environmental protection department to safeguard egrets in his forest, Chengdu Commercial Daily reported on Friday.

Liao Quanfu contracted some 2 hectares of farmland to produce saplings in 1998 and he found that this attracted animals and birds.

"There are more than 10,000 egrets and others birds in the forest," Liao said.

He decided not to sell the saplings and employed people to protect the birds with the establishment of protected area in his forest.

In October 2011, a transformer substation was built next to his forest.

Liao believed that the substation received an environmental assessment report from the provincial environmental protection department without going through the assessment process.

The lawsuit challenges the EA report on the substation.

A court in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, heard the case on Thursday and will issue a judgment later.