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The nature haven in the middle of an ecological catastrophe

Barsa-Kelmes was an island in the Aral Sea. It takes its name from the Kazakh phrase 'the land of no return', and it is steeped in legends of paranormal phenomena.

One thing is for sure, however, the island is battling for its survival. Since the 1960s, the Aral Sea has dried up and Barsa-Kelmes now finds itself in the middle of a desert, making it one of the only nature reserves in the world to be located in a zone of an ecological catastrophe.

Video by Irina Sedunova