Synergy Handling Karhutla, Minister Of Forestry Meets National Police Chief Listyo

National Police Chief General Pol. Listyo Sigit Prabowo (right) together with the Minister of Forestry (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni (left) spoke during an audience at the Rupatttama Building at the National Police Headquarters, Jakarta, Friday (24/10/2025). (ANTARA/HO-Division of Police Public Relations)

JAKARTA - National Police Chief General Pol. Listyo Sigit Prabowo and Minister of Forestry (Menhut) Raja Juli Antoni strengthened synergy in handling forest and land fires (karhutla).

"We have just held a kind of coordination meeting as well as analysis and evaluation related to programs related to the problem of handling forest fires," said the National Police Chief during a joint hearing between the National Police Chief and the Minister of Forestry at the Rupatttama Building at the National Police Headquarters, Jakarta, Thursday, which was confiscated by Antara.

During the meeting, said the National Police Chief, both parties recorded several points of strengthening efforts in dealing with forest and land fires in the future.

The first point is the handling of forest and land fires through preventive measures, one of which is education to the local community regarding the application of local wisdom.

"This is of course then we have to control it well so that the process when implementing local wisdom, this is really followed by the rules of how when it is to be implemented, it is reported first and then waited until it is finished so that there is no problem," he said.

He also encouraged private companies to also provide education so that people who want to clear land will not use arson.

In addition to prevention, the National Police Chief said that law enforcement also had an effect on the decline in forest and land fires.

The next point is to increase the joint alertness of personnel from the Ministry of Forestry (Kemenhut), the National Police, the TNI, and the local community in dealing with forest and land fires.

"It's all combined into a task force equipped with a command center, both from the center and in the regions, so that every time there is a hotspot (firespot) it is monitored, members of the joint task force personnel can move to the hotspots," said the National Police Chief.

The next point is to encourage plantation companies, especially palm oil, to have ditches and water sources in order to prepare water supplies before drought arrives.

"So that later when there is a fire incident, especially when El Nino occurs, all water sources are ready, the equipment is also ready so that the initial extinguishing process can be carried out quickly," said the National Police Chief.

Finally, in order to face El Nino, the National Police Chief also reminded that water bombing until the weather modification operation was prepared so that it could run well.

On the same occasion, Minister of Transportation Raja Juli Antoni expressed his appreciation to the National Police for collaborating with the Ministry of Transportation in suppressing the figure of forest and land fires, which was previously 376,000 hectares in 2024, down to 213,000 hectares by 2025.

According to him, the law enforcement efforts carried out by the police are one of the factors that support the decline in the number.

"In some places, the deterrent effect because law enforcement is quite good and effective from the police has resulted in naughty people playing around by burning land to make gardening easier, for example, the numbers can be suppressed properly," he said.