Worsening haze reduces visibility to almost zero

JAKARTA (JP): Worsening haze reduced visibility Thursday in cities in Sumatra, Kalimantan and Sulawesi to almost zero, and wildlife in Kalimantan and Java is being affected, reports said yesterday.

The Environmental Impact Management Agency said visibility was only about 100 meters in the Riau subdistrict of Rengat in Sumatra; the Panakukang subdistrict in South Sulawesi; and Pangkalanbun regency in Central Kalimantan.

This is considered almost zero visibility.

According to the agency, United States' National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration satellite images detected Thursday 18 hot spots in Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi and Java, down from Wednesday's 53 hot spots.

Antara reported yesterday that 16,112 people in West Sumatra had been afflicted by severe respiratory infections and 68 others had fainted in the choking haze in the province's capital of Padang.

West Sumatra provincial administration spokesman Yohannes Dahlan said the number of people affected did not include those from three regencies -- Agam, Padang Pariaman, and Pesisir Selatan.

"The number is based on reports from eleven regencies... reports from the other three regencies have yet to be completed," he said.

Head of the provincial health office Rasyidah Rasyid said the province had received 150,000 respiratory masks, far fewer in number than the province's population of 4.3 million.

Antara also reported that a fire that has destroyed 35 hectares of a state-owned timber estate in Banten, West Java, was threatening the lives of protected local buffalo (Bos Sondaicus).

Villagers of Ciseukut in the Cigeulis subdistrict were reported as saying that some of the buffalo had come out of the East Cibaliung forest, which is near the fire.

"The buffaloes went through our village and they looked vicious. There were tens of them," said Ciseukut villager Tarmin, who reported the case to the Ujung Kulon National Park authorities yesterday.

Zarkasi, an official of the national park which is ten kilometers from Cibaliung forest, confirmed that the buffaloes were fleeing because of the fires in East Cibaliung mahogany forest.

"The chance is that the animals became restless because their habitat is being destroyed by the fires and they were looking for a safer place, the village," Zarkasi told Antara

Fires are also affecting wildlife in East Kalimantan.

The news agency reported that fires had razed up to 30,000 hectares of forest in East Kalimantan, including 300 hectares of the 200,000-hectare Kutai National Park.

Total losses are estimated at Rp 70 billion (US$20 million). (aan)