East Kalimantan eases status on forest fires

East Kalimantan eases status on forest fires

JAKARTA (JP): East Kalimantan, the site of extensive forest
fires in recent months, lowered its alarm status from "alert one"
to "caution" over the weekend.

The status change was due to the decreasing number of hot
spots, or fire locations, and rain in some areas, Antara quoted
the Samarinda district military commander, Col. Djali Yusuf, as
saying Saturday.

The head of the provincial forestry office, Heru Basuki
Sukiran, said that East Kalimantan had been in alert one status,
or "very critical", since July.

Over the past few days, however, the "drought index" had
returned to normal, he said.

Some Armed Forces personnel have been deployed since August to
contain fires in 4,300 hectares of the 59,000-hectare Bukit
Soeharto protected forest.

Despite the easing of drought conditions and fires, officials
were still monitoring the situation from the Mulawarman
University's Center for Forestry Research in the capital
Samarinda, and in the Orangutan Rehabilitation Center in
Semboja's research forest in the Kutai regency.

Fires have so far destroyed some 30,000 hectares of land and
forest in East Kalimantan and the resulting haze problems have
caused respiratory infections in about 10,000 locals, it was
reported.

In many other areas, however, conditions persisted. Yesterday,
Antara reported that fires were still burning a vast area of
brush and dry paddy fields in the eastern part of South
Kalimantan.

Subdistricts reported fires were active in Satui in the Tanah
Laut regency and Jorong in the Kotabaru regency. Thick smoke
blanketed the area and visibility remained poor.

In South Sumatra's Lahat regency, the news agency also
reported yesterday that fires have razed more than 16,000
hectares of land, including coffee and rubber plantations
belonging to local people in the Pulaupinang subdistrict.

The head of Pulaupinang subdistrict, Muroimin Zahri, said 60
hectares of rubber plantation and 20 hectares of coffee
plantation were destroyed.

Muroimin blamed "certain irresponsible individuals" for
causing the fires, which in the last three months have destroyed
hundreds of hectares of the concession area belonging to the
industrial timber estate PT Barito Pacific Group.

Authorities in Lahat, however, said no one had been detained.

In West Sumatra's capital of Padang, thick haze was still
hanging over the area, and visibility at the Tabing Airport had
been low since Tuesday, Antara reported.

An official in the airport's meteorology and geophysics agency
said that visibility in the past week had ranged from 1,000 to
2,000 meters. Flight activities can commence if visibility at the
airport is at least 3,600 meters.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency (Bapedal) issued a
report yesterday that said satellite data showed hot spots were
concentrated in the provinces of East and Central Kalimantan as
well as South Sumatra, Jambi and Riau.

The agency said satellites recorded on Saturday 13 hot spots
in Sumatra and 21 in Kalimantan.

The meteorology and geophysics agency said that winds on
Saturday blew to the northwest across Indonesia and its main
island of Java. (aan)