Police Proceed With 9 Riau Fire And Forestry Actors, 130.5 Hectare Of Burned Land

Illustration of fighting forest and land fires or forest and land fires. (Between)

RIAU - Head of Public Relations of the Riau Police, Commissioner Sunarto, said his party had processed nine suspects for forest and land fires or forest and land fires in this area.

"There are 8 police reports with an area of 130.5 hectares of burned land. There are 9 individual suspects and no corporations", said Sunarto in his statement, Wednesday, August 3.

He said, since early January 2022, hundreds of hectares of land in Riau have been burned, including the Tesso Nillo National Park area in Pelalawan Regency, so the Riau Police are still handling cases of land fires carried out by individual farmers.

Sunarto said that the perpetrators of forest and land fires caused the most land fires in Indragiri Hilir Regency.

"Polres Indragiri Hilir handled two cases with two suspects. It was recorded that 107.5 hectares were burned which were handled by the police", said Sunarto.

Meanwhile, the Rokan Hilir Police handled three cases of forest and land fires and named three suspects. The actions of the three suspects scorched an area of 12 hectares.

Next, the Rokan Hulu Police named two suspects in a forest fire case covering an area of 5 hectares.

"The Siak and Bengkalis Police are each handling one case and the number of suspects is one person each. For the burned area, 4 hectares and 2 hectares", he said.

Meanwhile, as many as two cases are still in the investigation stage and one case has been in stage I, or the file is being investigated by the research prosecutor. However, 5 cases have been stage II or suspects and evidence have been submitted to the prosecutor.

Head of BPBD Riau M Edy Afrizal said the total area of burned land in Riau reached 1,060.85 hectares. The most extensive area of land burned is in Rokan Hulu, which is 302.5 hectares.

"Next are Rokan Hilir 147 hectares, Kampar 139.47 hectares, Bengkalis 136.7 hectares, Pelalawan 113.2 hectares, Indragiri Hilir 80.5 hectares. Dumai 49.95 hectares, Meranti Islands 32.1 hectares, Indragiri Hulu 31.9 hectares hectares, Pekanbaru 13.79 hectares, Siak 13.24 and Kuantan Singingi 0.5 hectares", he said.