5.5 Hectares Of Protected Forests In Southwest Sumba Karhutla Due To Burning Dry Grass On The Side Of The Road

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

The forest and land fires (karhutla) hit a protected forest area in Reda Pada Village, Southwest Sumba, which was successfully extinguished.

The police and the community struggled to extinguish the red rooster who scorched 5.5 hectares of the land.

"The forest and land fires that occurred in the protected forest area of Watu Kangpit covering an area of 5.5 hectares can be localized so that it does not spread, the community also participates in efforts to extinguish the fire," said Southwest Sumba Police Chief AKBP Sigit Harimbawan in his statement, September 14, quoted by Antara.

He said the fire that occurred on Tuesday afternoon, September 12, occurred not far from the Sumba Island highway.

Sigit said that forest and land fires were caused by the actions of individuals who deliberately burned dry grass from the edge of the highway and then spread to the protected forest area.

He said the forest and land fires were first discovered after reports were made from the public. The police went straight to the scene to make various efforts to localize the spread of the fire.

He added that the local community also carried out extinguishing efforts using makeshift tools and five units of community-owned clean water tanks to help extinguish the fire.

Sigit appealed to the public not to burn garbage or throw cigarette butts in protected forest areas, because this could trigger a fire.

He emphasized that forest fires that were carried out intentionally in accordance with Law No.41 of 1999 concerning Forestry were violations of the law and could be subject to criminal sanctions as well as fines based on Article 78 paragraph (3) of the Forestry Law which was sentenced to a maximum of 15 years in prison or a maximum fine of IDR 5 billion.