Fires bring orangutans misery

SAMARINDA, East Kalimantan: Two thousand orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) in Kutai National Park have been affected by the fires that have spread through the protected area, park chief Warsito, has said.

Some orangutans have been seen fleeing the fire-ravaged park, he said Wednesday as quoted by Antara.

"I saw a mother orangutan with her two children running toward the streets when fire swept Temputuk-Teluk Pandan."

He said up to 1,504 hectares of forest had already caught fire over the past couple of weeks in East Kalimantan.

The fires burned 352 hectares of forest in Teluk Kaba-Kandolo subdistrict, 210 hectares in Melawan-Sangatta, 917 hectares in Temputuk-Teluk Pandan and 25 hectares at Jl. Pertamina Km 12.

"The fires are still burning and we have already deployed 40 forest rangers and 30 residents to put them out," he said, adding he hoped water bomber Pilatus from the National Natural Disaster Control Coordinating Board would help curb the fires.

He said the fires were started by farmers who cleared land by burning the forest for agriculture, adding hundreds of families illegally occupied land in Tanjung Pandan.