Minister Of Transportation Believes Forest/Lahhan Fires In Rokan Hilir Deliberately For Palm Oil Plantation

Minister of Forestry Raja Juli Antoni at Roesmin Nurdjadin Air Base after visiting the Karhutla in Rohil. BETWEEN ANTARA/Annisa Firdausi

PeKANBARU - Minister of Forestry of the Republic of Indonesia Raja Juli Antoni believes that the forest and land fires (karhutla) in Rokan Hilir (Rohil) Regency, Riau, were deliberately burned to plant palm oil.

"Earlier we reviewed at Pujud and Bangko Pusako. It was clearly burned for the sake of the oil palm plantation landscape," he said at Roesmin Nurdjadin Airport Pekanbaru after air patrols, Wednesday, July 23, as reported by ANTARA.

Sat ini titik api telah menurun, namun cuaca yang ekstrem masih perlu diantisipasi.

Because based on data from the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG), the drought rate is high, so it is very vulnerable to burning.

The results of monitoring in the field, he continued, will be presented at a joint meeting with the Riau Regional Leadership Communication Forum and related agencies.

"Don't play with fire, later caught," he continued.

Forest and land fires in Rohil have occurred for the past 10 days. Efforts to extinguish from land and air by water bombing helicopter have been carried out, including an additional three units from the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).

The authorities noted that there were more than 100 hectares of land burned in Rokan Hilir Regency in the past week. The police have also arrested a number of people suspected of burning land.

In addition, weather modification technology (TMC) is also carried out and has produced rain.

The Deputy for BMKG Weather Modification, Tri Handoko Seto, explained that eight tons of salt had been smeared in the Riau sky to accelerate the formation of rain, Tuesday (22/7).

Yesterday, three tons were spread, today five tons. There has been quite a lot of rain that has fallen even though it has not been evenly distributed. Most of it fell in the eastern coast of Riau, such as Rokan Hilir (Rohil), northern Pekanbaru and surrounding areas," said Seto.