Fire devastates pine forest

KUNINGAN, West Java: Some 500 hectares of pine forest on the western slopes of Ciremai mountain, West Java, have been consumed by a forest fire resulting from the prolonged drought.

Tatang Sutisna, chairman of the Linggarjati Forest Unit of the Kuningan Forestry Agency, said the fire started on Friday.

He explained that the fire was hard to extinguish because of difficult access to the location, and accumulated dry leaves and twigs. The pine trees in the forest were under five years old.

According to the Forest Children Activists (AKAR) organization, the fire was the 14th to have affected the mountain since early this year. AKAR chairman Avo Juhartono said that some 2,000 hectares of the forests on the mountain had been burnt since July. --JP