Hundreds of students took to the streets of Palangkaraya, the capital of Indonesia’s Central Kalimantan province, demanding that the government formally declare a “national disaster” to mobilise more resources for firefighting and disaster relief. The province has been among the worst hit by forest fires and haze, which has obscured the sky for months.
According to The Jakarta Post, the sky was an eerie orange and visibility was extremely low last Friday (23 October). Hundreds of students wearing masks gathered outside the Central Kalimantan governor’s office in Palangkaraya, waving banners and demanding that the central and local governments show political resolve in tackling the crisis.
The demonstrators sang patriotic songs and engaged with minor scuffles with the police, but no one was injured or arrested. After nightfall, they cleared up the litter at the site and dispersed peacefully.
According to deforestation monitoring organisation Nusantara Atlas, wildfires burned more than 1.9 million hectares of land between January and September this year. Haze from the fires has made hundreds of thousands of people in Indonesia ill and has also affected Malaysia, Singapore and Timor-Leste.
Indonesia’s Minister for Health Budi Gunadi Sadikin visited Palangkaraya on Friday. A photograph of him using an oxygen cylinder sparked widespread discussion on social media, along with rumours that “even the minister was left gasping for breath by the smoke”.
The health ministry later clarified that the minister had worn a KN95 mask during his visit and had not felt unwell. He used the oxygen cylinder to raise awareness of oxygen shelters and mobile oxygen units set up by local community groups and the government. The ministry urged the public not to be swayed by statements that distorted the facts.
Large-scale land clearing worsens fires in South Papua
Beyond Sumatra and Kalimantan, the remote province of South Papua in Indonesia’s far east is also engulfed in flames. In Merauke, a national strategic food production project spanning 2.3 million hectares — nearly twice the size of Tokyo Metropolis — has triggered major fires through mechanised land clearing and burning for rice fields and sugar cane plantations. The fires are now completely out of control.
Although local indigenous communities have traditionally practised small-scale slash-and-burn farming, civil society monitoring groups have recorded large fires originating from plantations at multiple points along a 58km food estate corridor since mid-August. Reports say the land is being cleared to build roads and an airport.
With the central government’s firefighting resources concentrated in six provinces in Sumatra and Kalimantan, Papua has largely been left off the priority list for disaster relief.
Firefighters rescue endangered Javan surili infant
According to the Jakarta Globe, firefighters rescued an endangered baby Javan surili from the fire-ravaged forests of Mount Ciremai in West Java on Thursday (22 October). The monkey was only about a week old, with its umbilical cord still attached.
While working, firefighters found the infant clinging to a charred branch and crying and immediately brought it to safety. Early the next morning, rescuers successfully reunited it with its mother in the forest.
Native to West Java, Javan surilis have suffered a sharp population decline as their forest habitat comes under threat. The local government estimates that only 4,000 to 6,000 remain in the wild.
Indonesia’s National Disaster Management Agency is working with several government departments to step up coordinated enforcement and cloud-seeding operations in disaster-hit areas, while conducting on-site checks for fires in ecological conservation areas. President Prabowo Subianto has also allocated 10 billion rupiah (about S$708,100) to Tabalong regency in South Kalimantan — one of the areas worst hit by forest fires — to fund frontline firefighting equipment, fuel and logistical support for volunteers.
