JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto has instructed that forest and\nland fires (karhutla) around the Nusantara Capital (IKN) in East\nKalimantan be handled seriously so they do not spread into the IKN core\nzone.<\/p>\n
Prabowo asked that firefighting assets be strengthened to anticipate\nfires near the IKN area, including by deploying more firefighting\nequipment.<\/p>\n
\u201cFires close to the IKN must be watched closely, and perhaps we must\ndeploy more assets to ensure the fires do not reach the core zone,\u201d\nPrabowo said while chairing a disaster management meeting virtually at\nthe Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Monday, as monitored via the\nPresidential Secretariat\u2019s YouTube live stream.<\/p>\n
The instruction was given after the Head of the National Disaster\nMitigation Agency (BNPB), Suharyanto, reported land fires in the IKN\narea, specifically at Bukit Soeharto, covering 458 hectares.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the IKN, East Kalimantan, in the IKN area, Mr President, there\nare 458 hectares at Bukit Soeharto,\u201d Suharyanto said.<\/p>\n
He said the fires were still being handled with the support of the\nGround Task Force and water-bombing helicopters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is still being handled; we are assisting with the Ground Task\nForce and water-bombing helicopters there,\u201d Suharyanto said.<\/p>\n
In his report, Suharyanto said around 98 per cent of peatland fires\nin six priority provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan had been\nsuccessfully extinguished.<\/p>\n
The six provinces are West Kalimantan, Riau, South Kalimantan,\nCentral Kalimantan, South Sumatra, and Jambi.<\/p>\n
Suharyanto said combined ground and air operations had extinguished\n71,069.65 hectares of burning peatland out of a total of 72,009.10\nhectares across the six provinces.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have successfully extinguished 71,069.65 hectares across the six\nprovinces as of today. So we are reporting the total burned in the six\nprovinces, which is peatland. Peatland is difficult to extinguish,\u201d he\nsaid.<\/p>\n
With 71,069.65 hectares successfully extinguished, the remaining fire\narea currently being targeted is about 939.45 hectares. Suharyanto said\nefforts to extinguish the remaining areas were under way on Monday.<\/p>\n
Although the burned area has shrunk, BNPB remains on heightened alert\nas there is still potential for new hotspots to emerge. In addition,\nfires previously extinguished can reignite due to the characteristics of\npeatland.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether the 939.45 hectares will decrease after being extinguished\ntoday, or tomorrow? Hopefully it will decrease, but sometimes it does\nnot decrease significantly because new fire points are discovered today,\nor old fires that were already extinguished suddenly come back to life.\nThat is the difficulty with peatland in these six priority provinces,\u201d\nhe said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, President Prabowo asked Suharyanto to discuss with TNI\nCommander General Agus Subiyanto the placement of heavy Chinook\nhelicopters to ensure the assets are stationed where they are most\nneeded.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlright, this will be discussed with the TNI Commander later about\nwhere the Chinook helicopters should be positioned,\u201d the President\nsaid.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/prabowo-orders-forest-fires-must-not-reach-ikn-core-zone-1788778672", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }