TNGR Office Still Struggling to Put Out Forest Fires in Rinjani

JAKARTA - The Mount Rinjani National Park Office (TNGR) stated that the joint officers are currently focusing on extinguishing forest land fires in the Aikmel Propok Resort Savana area of Mount Rinjani East Lombok Regency, West Nusa Tenggara (NTB).

Head of the Administrative Affairs Sub-Section of the Astekita TNGR Office, Ardi, said based on monitoring results, the fire was first detected at around 11.00 WITA in the Savana Propok 2 area at coordinates 50 446438 E and 9067279 S.

"The fire then spread to reach the Savana Propok 1 area which is dominated by dry savanna vegetation," he said as quoted by ANTARA, Tuesday, June 2.

Following up on this information, the Savana Propok Management Group immediately carried out extinguishing efforts by deploying 15 people who moved to the location of the incident at 13.00 WITA.

"The blackout was carried out intensively until 18.00 WITA," he said.

However, the extinguishing efforts have not been able to control all the fire points due to the limitations of personnel, logistics, and extinguishing equipment available in the field. Until 19.00 WITA, the fire was still active in several parts of the affected area.

"Considering that the conditions have entered the evening with very limited lighting levels, and considering the safety factor of the personnel on duty, the extinguishing activity was temporarily stopped and will resume on Wednesday (3/6) morning," he said.

He said the TNGR Office continued to coordinate and consolidate with relevant parties to support effective fire management efforts and minimize the impact on the ecosystem of the area.

"We appeal to the entire community, visitors to the area, nature tourism actors, farmers, livestock farmers, and climbers, to increase vigilance against the potential for forest and land fires," he said.

The increasingly dry vegetation condition during the dry season makes forest and savannah areas more vulnerable to fires.

Therefore, the public is expected not to carry out activities that have the potential to trigger the emergence of fire, including burning land, burning remnants of vegetation, throwing cigarette butts carelessly, or lighting a fire without adequate supervision.

"The TNGR Office also invites all elements of the community to play an active role in fire prevention by immediately reporting to officers if they find a fire point, smoke, or fire indication in and around the forest area," said Astekita Ardi.