Forest fires continue in East Kalimantan

JAKARTA (JP): Fires continued to raze East Kalimantan forests and envelope large parts of Kutai National Park and Great Soeharto Hill Forest Park yesterday.

A Kutai regency official, Soebianto, said in Tenggarong yesterday that hot spots were still being detected across several timber and forest estates and Kutai National Park.

"Minister of Forestry and Plantations Sumahadi is scheduled to inspect the fire-ravaged areas here today (Monday)," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

Soebianto said the fires had already burned at least 131,000 hectares of East Kalimantan forests, 50,000 hectares of which were in Kutai National Park.

"The forest fires have inflicted a total loss of about Rp 2 billion (US$235,000) on the park," he said.

He said the fires during the first three months of 1998 had caused as much material damage as the total losses from sporadic forest fires in the province over the past 15 years.

Losses in the first three months of 1998 already total Rp 3 trillion.

The forest fires have not only affected East Kalimantan but also neighboring Central Kalimantan, which has been blanketed in haze from East Kalimantan for the past few days.

The haze has affected air transportation to and from Tjilik Riwut airport, in Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, while motorcyclists have already complained about eye irritations and headaches.

However people have yet to wear masks to protect their respiratory systems.

Tjilik Riwut reopened yesterday after being closed for two days due to thick haze.

A special Caterina seaplane took off from the airport at 5:30 a.m. Central Indonesian Time carrying Governor Warsito Rasman on a visit to Muara Teweh subdistrict, North Barito regency.

The airplane, however, was forced to return to Tjilik Riwut after it was unable to land at Muara Teweh because of thick haze.

A state-owned Merpati Airlines airplane successfully landed at Tjilik Riwut after a flight from Jakarta. (imn)