Prabowo orders forest fires must not reach IKN core zone

JAKARTA - President Prabowo Subianto has instructed that forest and land fires (karhutla) around the Nusantara Capital (IKN) in East Kalimantan be handled seriously so they do not spread into the IKN core zone.

Prabowo asked that firefighting assets be strengthened to anticipate fires near the IKN area, including by deploying more firefighting equipment.

“Fires close to the IKN must be watched closely, and perhaps we must deploy more assets to ensure the fires do not reach the core zone,” Prabowo said while chairing a disaster management meeting virtually at the Merdeka Palace in Jakarta on Monday, as monitored via the Presidential Secretariat’s YouTube live stream.

The instruction was given after the Head of the National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB), Suharyanto, reported land fires in the IKN area, specifically at Bukit Soeharto, covering 458 hectares.

“In the IKN, East Kalimantan, in the IKN area, Mr President, there are 458 hectares at Bukit Soeharto,” Suharyanto said.

He said the fires were still being handled with the support of the Ground Task Force and water-bombing helicopters.

“This is still being handled; we are assisting with the Ground Task Force and water-bombing helicopters there,” Suharyanto said.

In his report, Suharyanto said around 98 per cent of peatland fires in six priority provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan had been successfully extinguished.

The six provinces are West Kalimantan, Riau, South Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, South Sumatra, and Jambi.

Suharyanto said combined ground and air operations had extinguished 71,069.65 hectares of burning peatland out of a total of 72,009.10 hectares across the six provinces.

“We have successfully extinguished 71,069.65 hectares across the six provinces as of today. So we are reporting the total burned in the six provinces, which is peatland. Peatland is difficult to extinguish,” he said.

With 71,069.65 hectares successfully extinguished, the remaining fire area currently being targeted is about 939.45 hectares. Suharyanto said efforts to extinguish the remaining areas were under way on Monday.

Although the burned area has shrunk, BNPB remains on heightened alert as there is still potential for new hotspots to emerge. In addition, fires previously extinguished can reignite due to the characteristics of peatland.

“Whether the 939.45 hectares will decrease after being extinguished today, or tomorrow? Hopefully it will decrease, but sometimes it does not decrease significantly because new fire points are discovered today, or old fires that were already extinguished suddenly come back to life. That is the difficulty with peatland in these six priority provinces,” he said.

Meanwhile, President Prabowo asked Suharyanto to discuss with TNI Commander General Agus Subiyanto the placement of heavy Chinook helicopters to ensure the assets are stationed where they are most needed.

“Alright, this will be discussed with the TNI Commander later about where the Chinook helicopters should be positioned,” the President said.