The Sumatra Disaster
Four hundred and forty-two people have died. Four hundred and two others are still missing. The number of victims as of November 30. That is not just a number on the BNPB press conference screen, but the names, faces, and stories that were swept away by floods and landslides in North Sumatra, Aceh, and West Sumatra in the last six days. Meanwhile, tens of thousands of other people were crammed into refugee camps, returning home from a house full of mud and a cold and boisterous emergency post.
On paper, the cause was clear. Extreme rain due to Cyclone Senyar. BMKG and BRIN researchers explained how the cyclone triggered giant rain clouds, strong winds, and unnatural daily rainfall on the west coast of Sumatra. Nature works in its own way. But a disaster of this size was not born from the clouds overnight. There is a long story behind every wave of water that hits a broken house and bridge.
The story is written in cold deforestation figures. The Global Forest Watch as published by VOI noted, in more than two decades Aceh lost 860 thousand hectares of tree cover. North Sumatra lost 1.6 million hectares, West Sumatra 740 thousand hectares. On the map, green changes slowly to brown: oil palm plantations, mining holes, new settlements. In the field, logs washed away together with the flood became the most naked evidence that the upstream forest had long been disturbed.
The Community Prekarsa Development Study Group (KSPPM), reported by Tempo, reads the tracks in more detail in South Tapanuli and Central Tapanuli. Since 1990, natural forests in these two districts have shrunk tens of thousands of hectares. Behind it is an expansion of oil palm plantations, wood gardens, and hundreds of mining holes. Upstream Batang Toru and Sibundong, dozens of tributaries are now in the company's concessions. For three decades, the hard trees that hold the ground and regulate the flow of water are opened little by little. When extreme rains come, the river just collects the debt' that we pile up slowly.
On the cellphone screen, the public saw large pieces of wood spinning in brown currents. The Director General of Law Enforcement of the Ministry of Forestry admitted that most of the wood allegedly came from land owned by Land Rights holders in other areas of use. He also acknowledged the old mode that keeps repeating itself. Illegal timber laundering disguised through valid permits. This means that those that are washed away are not only wood, but also the credibility of forest governance which has been neatly promoted in official documents.
On the other hand, civil society organizations call this disaster a more honest name: ecological tragedy. Walhi North Sumatra accused seven companies in the Batang Toru ecosystem of being the main contributor to the damage to the last essential tropical forest landscape in North Sumatra. KSPPM said 43 disaster points were downstream by two watersheds whose upstream was opened for economic purposes. Forest Watch Indonesia explains in a simple language. When the forest was cut down, the ability of land to bind water disappeared, erosion became easy, landslides and flash floods were just waiting for the moment.
The warning voice now also comes from inside the parliament building. Member of Commission IV of the House of Representatives, Slamet, was confiscated from Tempo, directly mentioned the root of the problem. Lowering the quality of forest cover, land clearing without a disaster risk study, and governance that allows expansion in vulnerable areas. He encouraged tightening permits around protected areas, forest rehabilitation with local species, and risk-based spatial planning. On paper, this is like a list of old jobs that are always delayed until ambulance sirens are returning.
The National Journalists Forum (FWK) adds one layer of other demands. This is no longer the time to hide behind the term natural disaster'. FWK National Coordinator, King of Parlindungan Pane, urged the government to investigate allegations of environmental crimes behind the Sumatra disaster. Wood trucks passing on district roads, permits signed at the regent's office, to concessions extended from Jakarta all of these are not things that suddenly happen without the police knowing. If the perpetrators are corporations, said Raja, then the investigation must dare to get there.
We appreciate how the government, all lines are struggling to help victims. But what is sad about this disaster is that the country seemed to appear downstream, when the bodies were evacuated and logistics were distributed. But like being absent upstream, when the forest was opened, permits were relaxed, and scientists warning seemed to be swept under the carpet for the sake of the economy. We treat the forest as a cashier who never closes, not as a life support system that has a boundary.
Therefore, the Sumatra disaster is not just a momentum of mourning, but a turning point. A thorough audit of concession permits in the upstream area of the watershed, moratorium on forest clearing in vulnerable areas, indiscriminate action against illegal logging, and serious ecological recovery is not just a seed planting program for ceremonial photos. Without that, each press conference will only be the next victim's recount.
In the midst of this long sorrow, maybe we really need to stop for a moment, look down, and remember the old song verse belonging to Ebiet G. Ade which feels alive again today. When the rain subsides and the mud starts to dry up on the floor of the residents' houses, we deserve to ask, not only to officials, but also to ourselves. When do we stop repeating the same mistake?
Maybe God is getting tired of seeing our behavior
Yang selalu salah dan bangga dengan sin-sin
Or nature is starting to be reluctant to be friendly with us
Let's ask the grass that sways.