Thwarting Forest and Land Fires Ahead of Prolonged Dry Season
Several regions in Indonesia are preparing to tackle the onset of the ‘season’ of forest and land fires (karhutla). This follows warnings of a prolonged dry season and the ‘attack’ of Godzilla El Niño by the BMKG some time ago.
Both the dry season and El Niño will fuse, potentially causing a karhutla disaster if they occur simultaneously. Previously, the BMKG also stated that climate conditions in 2026 could be drier than normal. Meanwhile, during the same period, the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) in the first semester of 2026 will remain in a neutral phase. In the second semester of 2026, this condition will change and is predicted to develop towards a weak to moderate El Niño with a probability of around 50-80 percent.
‘It must be understood that the dry season and El Niño are two different phenomena. The dry season is a climatological cycle. However, if they occur together with El Niño, rainfall will be significantly reduced and conditions will become drier,’ said the Head of BMKG, Teuku Faisal Fathani, quoted from detikKalimantan on Thursday (9/4).
Based on data provided by the BMKG through its official website, hotspots in Indonesia reached 1,601 since early April 2026. Quoting detikKalimantan, this figure is higher than in previous years during the same period.
From Sumatra, the Muara Enim Regency Government has begun paying attention to the potential for forest and land fires in their area. Although it has not yet declared a karhutla emergency alert status, Muara Enim Regent Edison said his side has prepared several anticipatory efforts.
‘The emergency alert status has indeed not been set, but personnel and equipment are always on standby to anticipate karhutla,’ said Edison on Saturday (11/4/2026).
The same is being done by the governments of South Kalimantan and West Kalimantan. Therefore, the BMKG urges various stakeholders to carry out several preventions such as rewetting, utilisation of the Fire Danger Rating System (FDRS) to map fire risk levels, monitoring of hotspots and smoke distribution, and predictions of potential rain cloud growth as a basis for field interventions.
An academic from Palangka Raya University, Aswin Usup, said that handling karhutla must be underpinned by political will. He further stated that so far, fire extinguishing in forest or peatland areas has only been reactive. Without intending to blame, he sees that there is an appropriate solution to prevent the recurrence of forest and land fires in various regions.