JAKARTA \u2013 Thick smoke from Indonesia\u2019s forest fires<\/span><\/a> has grounded firefighting aircraft in Central Kalimantan for about a week, leaving crews struggling to contain blazes threatening one of the world\u2019s best-known orang utan habitats.<\/p>\n Firefighters are also battling difficult swampy terrain and equipment shortages as fires spread across more than 500ha of the Tanjung Puting National Park area and surrounding parts of West Kotawaringin and Seruyan regencies, according to details that emerged following a high-level meeting chaired by President Prabowo Subianto and attended by disaster and security officials on Oct 12.<\/p>\n Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya disclosed the details on Oct 13, including an account by regional military commander, Major-General Zainul Arifin, who told Prabowo that visibility around the park had dropped to just 500m, preventing civilian aircraft from conducting water-bombing operations.<\/p>\n The fires have blanketed parts of South-east Asia in haze, disrupting flights<\/span><\/a>, forcing school closures and raising public health concerns.<\/p>\n Offers of firefighting assistance from Singapore and Malaysia<\/span><\/a> were not discussed at the meeting, according to officials.<\/p>\n National Disaster Mitigation Agency chief Suharyanto told the meeting that 639.23ha of land remained ablaze across six priority provinces as at Oct 12, out of nearly 130,000ha burned cumulatively.<\/p>\n \u201cIn Central Kalimantan in particular, water-bombing helicopters have been unable to fly for about a week because of poor visibility,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n With aircraft unable to operate from Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan\u2019s capital, and Banjarmasin in neighbouring South Kalimantan, firefighters must rely heavily on ground operations.<\/p>\n Weather modification flights intended to encourage rainfall and commercial services have also been affected.<\/p>\n According to Teddy, more than 60,000 personnel have been deployed in ground operations, extinguishing an average of more than 80% of newly burned land each day.<\/p>\n Tanjung Puting, on Borneo island, is a major conservation area known internationally for its orang utans and rainforest tourism.<\/p>\n On the challenges firefighters face, Zainul said: \u201cThe locations are very scattered, and the terrain is swampy.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is not just orang utans there. There are many dangerous animals, including crocodiles and snakes. So we have to be careful when entering these areas.\u201d<\/p>\n An orang utan hanging on a tree inside a High Conservation Value concession area affected by wildfires in the Ketapang regency, Indonesia\u2019s West Kalimantan province.<\/p>\n PHOTO: REUTERS<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Zainul said 247 foreign tourists visited the park on Oct 12, bringing its 2026 total to 66,000.<\/p>\n Firefighting teams were being organised with local disaster management officials, police and the regional authorities to ensure personnel could safely enter affected areas, but they faced shortages of essential equipment.<\/p>\n Zainul said some portable pumps previously supplied to the province were still being used to cool areas where fires had been extinguished. Additional pumps were difficult to obtain locally and sometimes had to be brought from Java.<\/p>\n When Prabowo asked how many were needed, Zainul said 50 would be sufficient. \u201cI will send 200,\u201d the President replied.<\/p>\n Zainul also raised the need for water-drilling teams to help extinguish fires in areas inaccessible to vehicles. He added that groundwater could be reached at depths of about 10m to 15m, with each drilling point costing around 10 million rupiah (S$715).<\/p>\n \u201cTen million per point?\u201d Prabowo asked. After receiving confirmation, he replied: \u201cOkay, I will send two billion rupiah, for 200 points.\u201d<\/p>\n Zainul said local residents could be recruited to help drill the wells.<\/p>\n He also raised the possibility of using military aircraft for water bombing, saying private operators required visibility of about 5,000m, while military crews had previously flown under more restricted conditions.<\/p>\n Prabowo instructed military and police officials to coordinate their aviation personnel.<\/p>\n Beyond the immediate firefighting operations, Prabowo reiterated his request for 70,000 forest police officers to strengthen protection of Indonesia\u2019s forests, suggesting that the police and military could help train them.<\/p>\n He also called for fire prevention and mitigation measures to begin at the village level, drawing on advice from university experts.<\/p>\n Prabowo stressed that extinguishing the remaining fires was an immediate priority, but preventing future outbreaks would require a much broader effort.<\/p>\n \u201cOur strategy must be massive, comprehensive, wide-ranging and preventive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n JAKARTA \u2013 Thick smoke from Indonesia\u2019s forest fires has grounded firefighting aircraft in Central Kalimantan for about a week, leaving crews struggling to contain blazes…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92796,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=92795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/92796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=92795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=92795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=92795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Fires threaten orang utan sanctuary<\/h2>\n
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Tougher action<\/h2>\n
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