NANJING -- Seventeen people who had been convicted of poisoning and selling wild birds were ordered to pay punitive damages of nearly 22 million yuan (about $3.3 million) in a separate public interest litigation in eastern China's Jiangsu Province.

According to the people's procuratorate in the city of Taizhou, 13 convicts, who poisoned a total 24,065 wild birds in October and November of 2016 in the city of Lianyungang, were ordered to compensate for the loss of ecological resources up to 21.7 million yuan.

The 13 people were sentenced to imprisonment from six months to two years and fined from 1,000 yuan to 20,000 yuan in August 2018.

The four other people, who sold and processed poisonous birds to restaurant-goers, were ordered to pay a fine 10 times the amount of their illegal gains, totaling 22,500 yuan.

All the defendants were ordered to make a public apology in the media.

The procuratorate said the birds, including some precious and state protected ones, were identified to be worth over 7 million yuan.

Lianyungang is an important stop on the route for migrating birds. The culprits mixed carbofuran, a highly toxic pesticide, with bird food before scattering in a field. The poisoned birds were then frozen for sale. About 1,500 birds had been consumed before the trial.

The procuratorate said their acts have caused damages to wildlife ecological resources and consumers' health and therefore should be punished in civil court in addition to criminal liabilities.