Jakarta – Fires have ravaged more than 224,000 ha of forest in the drought-stricken Indonesian province of East Kalimantan since the beginning of the year, reports said yesterday.
The head of East Kalimantan's Environmental Impact Control Agency, Mr Awang Faruk Ishak, was quoted by the Antara news agency as saying 224,384 ha of the Borneo island province had been devastated by fires.
Among the hardest hit was the 198,000-ha Kutai National Park, the province's largest natural forest park, he said. Fires had wiped out almost 36 per cent of cover as of Wednesday, he added.
Other fire-ravaged areas include 55,463 ha of forest concessions, 66,839 ha of timber estate and close to 3,000 ha of plantations.
The agency has been monitoring the devastation closely by satellite.
Mr Ishak estimated losses of at least 4,817 billion rupiah (S$952 million) not counting the cost of environmental and health damage.
He said thousands of fires continued to burn in the province despite efforts to curb their advance.
The lack of rain since the middle of last year had left forest and ground cover susceptible to fires, he added.
Officials said long-smouldering coal, lignite and peat seams criss-crossing the province exacerbated the problem.
Water bombing, artificial rain-making and military support for local firefighters had failed to put out the fires, said the agency chief.
Fears of a repeat of last year's South-east Asian haze, when smoke from Indonesian fires blanketed much of the region and caused widespread health problems and transport disruption, were eased by strong winds helping to dissipate the haze.
But the smoke has made thousands ill in East Kalimantan and led to shortages of food and water in some areas.
A UN team was in the province to assess what it needed to fight the disaster. UN officials have suggested a food-for-fire-fighting plan in East Kalimantan under which residents who stop burning the forests or who help put out fires would get food.
Indonesian Environment Minister Juwono Sudarsono has said US$2 billion to US$3 billion (S$3.2 billion to S$4.8 billion) would be required to extinguish the fires now burning.
[On April 9, Suara Pembaruan reported that around 150 orangutans in Kalimantan have been treated for injuries sustained in forest fires. According to the forestry ministry expert, the daily said that all but 20 of 3,200 hectares of the Wanariset Orangutan Conservation Area have been destroyed. The fires have also killed several types of butterflies only found in the East Kalimantan forests - James Balowski.]