More than 107,000 hectares of land across Indonesia have been affected by forest and land fires so far this year, with authorities deploying thousands of personnel and various assets to contain the worsening situation.
CNN Indonesia reported that the government had mobilised 43 helicopters for firefighting operations, while between 10 and 15 aircraft were also on standby to be deployed according to operational needs.
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Djamari Chaniago said large numbers of ground personnel had also been placed on standby to help control the fires.
He said aerial operations, particularly Weather Modification Operations (OMC) aimed at producing artificial rain, remained among the most effective methods of tackling large-scale fires.
However, the success of cloud seeding depends heavily on natural weather conditions. Djamari said the operation could only be carried out when suitable rain clouds were detected in the atmosphere.
The worsening fires have also affected daily life, with dozens of schools in Indonesia closed for a second consecutive day due to haze spreading across several areas as the country enters a prolonged dry season.
In Pontianak, Kalimantan, authorities ordered schools to close after smoke from fires in surrounding areas blanketed the city. Mayor Edi Rusdi Kamtono said pupils would continue their lessons online as long as air quality remained poor.
“We have started feeling the effects, especially at night and in the morning, as haze has covered Pontianak,” he said in a statement.
Meanwhile, fires have continued to burn at Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park in East Java, where firefighters have been battling the blaze for nine days.
The fire has destroyed around 900 hectares of the popular tourist destination since it began last Monday, prompting authorities to close the area to visitors from Saturday.
The affected area is equivalent to more than 1,200 football fields and accounts for almost two per cent of the national park’s total area.
Local disaster official Satriyo Nurseno said firefighting teams were working to extinguish the remaining flames before carrying out extensive efforts to wet the affected areas and prevent the fire from reigniting.
Three firefighting helicopters and several fire engines were deployed alongside around 200 firefighters, forest rangers, police officers and soldiers involved in the operation.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said more than 48,000 personnel had been deployed to combat forest and land fires across six regions.
The situation comes as Indonesia prepares for potentially severe effects from the El Nino weather phenomenon. The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said the country’s average temperature in July reached 27°C, compared with 26.2°C during the same month last year.
The figure represented the highest July temperature increase recorded since 1991. El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that can alter global wind patterns, atmospheric pressure and rainfall distribution, often bringing drier conditions to India and Southeast Asia.
The extent of land affected by forest fires in Indonesia this year is already twice the area recorded in 2023, highlighting the growing scale of the country’s annual fire and haze problem.
