SEVERING THE “FIRE HEAD”
Separately, the government is strengthening its strategy for handling forest and land fires by severing the “fire head”, which is the leading edge of the blaze, using heavy machinery and by constructing borewells to accelerate extinguishing efforts and prevent the fire from spreading further.
According to Forestry Minister Raja Juli Antoni, this strategy targets the primary point of the fire’s advance rather than simply chasing the flames as they spread.
In addition to using heavy machinery, the government also plans to construct approximately 30 borewells to support firefighting efforts in high-risk areas. A borewell is a narrow, deep shaft drilled into the earth to tap into underground water sources.
These borewells will be spaced about 50m apart along the fire head to ensure a reliable water supply at the fire site.
Raja Juli emphasised that the government is also optimising various measures to control forest and land fires, including through weather modification operations.
“Regardless of whether a regency is currently experiencing fires, we proceed with cloud seeding, dispersing salt into potential clouds, to increase moisture levels,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ristianto Pribadi, head of the public relations at the Ministry of Forestry, said that the Indonesian government is paying special attention to forest and land fires in Tanjung Puting National Park to prevent them from spreading and to protect wildlife habitats.
Tanjung Puting in Central Kalimantan is the world’s largest conservation and rehabilitation centre for orangutans.
Authorities on Monday said that more than 500 hectares of the national park had been affected by the fire but firefighting efforts have been hampered by “extremely poor visibility”.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Forestry has deployed 117 personnel from the park’s agency to tackle the fires, on top of 10 additional personnel from Karimunjawa National Park and Mount Halimun Salak National Park.