Peruvian Government Livid After Greenpeace Activists Walk Across Nazca Lines

Efforts to raise awareness about climate change in Peruvian desert may have proven too costly for Greenpeace activists. The activists had entered the site of Nazca lines, historic patterns created a millennia ago, which has miffed the country's government.

Bloomberg Businessweek reported that around 20 Greenpeace activists put down a message in cloth on December 8 that read 'Time for Change! The Future is Renewable' in the bid to draw attention of delegates attending UN talks on climate in Lima. The activist's stunt did not go down well the government which the entry to the site is restricted given the delicateness of the Nazca lines, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

"After the illegal, premeditated action by environmental defense group Greenpeace, the zone has been seriously affected," culture ministry reportedly said in a statement, according to Yahoo News.

The government has called on people to identify the activists and prevent them from leaving the country.

Nazca Lines are geolyphs, etched between 1,500 and 2,000 years ago, depicting many things including plants, animals and other imagined patterns over 450 km of desert, for ritual astronomical purposes.

"They are absolutely fragile. They are black rocks on a white background. You walk there and the footprint is going to last hundreds or thousands of years. And the line that they have destroyed is the most visible and most recognised of all," said Peruvian Culture Minister Luis Jaime Castillo, according to The Guardian.

Though Greenpeace has tendered an apology claiming there was no intended damage done, the Peruvian government has not accepted it.