Monitoring Equipment for Mount Semeru at Kopirejo Station in Malang Stolen
Monitoring equipment for the activity of Mount Semeru at the Kopirejo Monitoring Station, Wajak Subdistrict, Malang Regency, East Java, has been reported missing after being stolen by thieves.
This incident was first discovered by staff in mid-April. The loss of the equipment temporarily disrupted the transmission of monitoring data from the station to the central data centre of the Semeru Volcano Observatory (PGA).
“The theft occurred on 16 April 2026. The chronology was that we realised [there had been a theft] because the equipment was found to be dead and no data was coming in,” said the Head of the Semeru PGA Post, Liswanto, when confirmed by CNNIndonesia.com on Thursday (23/4).
Upon discovering the data transmission failure, Semeru PGA staff immediately checked the location at the Kopirejo Station.
From the field examination, it was found that the perpetrators had successfully taken away dozens of hardware components, from power sources to installation systems.
“We then checked the Kopirejo Station. The stolen items were 12 batteries, 12 solar panels, 2 solar panel regulators, 1 DC to DC converter, grounding cables, and grounding sticks,” he said.
Despite the loss of several monitoring devices at the Kopirejo Station, Liswanto assured that the overall supervision of Mount Semeru’s volcanic activity has not completely halted.
Liswanto stated that they are still relying on other stations scattered across several points to monitor Semeru’s activity.
“So far, the monitoring of Mount Semeru is still ongoing because there are other posts that can still carry out monitoring,” he said.
Liswanto mentioned that with this incident, the theft of Mount Semeru monitoring equipment has now occurred twice.
The first incident happened at the monitoring station in Klepu Village, Sumbermanjing Wetan, Malang Regency, East Java, in August 2024.
He said that they are still calculating the total losses from the missing monitoring equipment at the Kopirejo Monitoring Station. He has also reported the case to the police.
“This is the second incident. The first one in Klepu, we probably won’t recommend reinstalling the equipment. The report to the police is being processed,” he said.