Wildlife After Chernobyl's disaster

While Chernobyl is in Ukraine, the 1986 nuclear plant catastrophe sent clouds of radioactivity north into Belarus, contaminating the mosaic of abandoned farmland, meadows, and tree plantations that now make up the PSRR. As the disaster unfolded, about 22,000 people were forced to leave dozens of villages. Dams were built to prevent radioactive water from flowing to densely populated areas—as a result, marshes along the Pripyat River, drained long ago for agriculture, were reestablished. In 1988, the PSRR, covering 2,162 square kilometers (835 square miles) was created as one of Europe’s largest nature reserves. The predators started showing up soon after.