2,000 Hectares Of Forest On The Slope Of Mount Lawu Burns And Expands To Karanganyar

Smoke from the forest and burned land on Mount Lawu can be seen from Karanggubito, Kendal, Ngawi, East Java (ANTARA)

A total of 2,000 hectares of forest on the slopes of Mount Lawu caught fire. A fire broke out on the slopes of Mount Lawu, namely in Ngawi and Magetan Regencies, East Java. The fire began to spread to the forest point in Karanganyar, Central Java.

The East Java Provincial Government also plans to conduct aeroseeding in the affected forests.

Adm Perhutani KPH Lawu DS, Agus Ahmad Fadoli, said that currently there are around 2,000 hectares of forest on the slopes of Mount Lawu which are affected by forest fires.

A total of 1,300 hectares are on the side of Ngawi Regency and the remaining 700 hectares are on the side of Magetan Regency.

"Most of the burned ones are protected forests, mixed jungles, shrubs, and grass," Agus said in his statement, Wednesday, October 11.

His party is currently continuing to monitor a number of instruments that have been made to cut off the fire line. There are 27 kilometers of illumination that have been made, with 18 kilometers of illumination in Ngawi Regency, and 9 kilometers of ironan in Magetan Regency.

"Currently, we are focusing on sweeping the alignment by conducting evictions to check the hotspots, if there are, we will immediately extinguish them," said Agus.

Meanwhile, the Governor of East Java, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, who visited the Karhutla Monitoring Post in Magetan Regency, said that his party plans to reforestation using the aeroseeding method in a number of protected forest areas affected by the fire.

This is done to reach a number of forest points whose conditions are indeed difficult to reach because they are on slopes and steep cliffs. Aeroseeding has been done by the East Java Provincial Government to carry out reforestation at protected forest points that experienced severe forest fires.

"So later when the rainy season is over, we can do aeroseeding, with what point the plants are, what areas are certain with seeds. Everything must be in accordance with the assessment that was previously carried out," said Khofifah.