Police Arrest Perpetrators Of Forest And Land Fires In Indragiri Hulu

Kapolres Indragiri Hulu (Inhu) AKBP Dodi during the exposure to the arrest of the land burning perpetrator in Inhu, at the Inhu Police Office, Monday (16-10-2023). ANTARA/HO-Humas Inhu Police.

PeKANBARU - Police Resort (Polres) Indragiri Hulu arrested Sutanto (32) who burned 10 hectares of land to open a new oil palm plantation area in Indragiri Hulu, Riau.

"The perpetrator's crime was revealed after being monitored by the Lancang Kuning application which can monitor forest and land fires. On Thursday (5/10) the Lancang Kuning application saw hotspots in Siambul Village, Batang Gansal and then checked directly to the location," said Indragiri Hulu Police Chief AKBP Doditip ANTARA, Monday, October 16.

He said he arrived at the location of the forest and land fires, Bhabinkamtibmas Brigadier Rizky Saleh saw the burning land covered in smoke and at that location his members also found a hut.

Then Brigadier Rizky put out the fire together and looked for who owns the land. And on Tuesday (10/10) the police took Sutanto to the forest and land fires location.

"The Indragiri Hulu Police Team showed the forest and burned land areas to the perpetrators and admitted that they burned their land and belonged to Fikri together," said Dodi.

Sutanto admitted that the land was purchased from someone in early 2023 covering an area of 10 hectares. The land is then divided into two with Fikri and each gets five hectares.

The land, which was still in the form of a bush forest, was then repaired later, and established a cottage at the location with Fikri to clean the land.

"The land burning process is carried out at night while still preparing a water hose to anticipate if the fire expands. The perpetrators have been recorded as burning the land eight times using how to block the land that will be burned," he said.

Next, according to the land burner's confession, they made a pile of between 2x3 meters to burn but the fire spread quickly so that it could not be controlled and saw the incident they were scared and returned to their respective homes.

"For their actions, the perpetrators must be arrested, they are charged with the Environmental Protection and Management Law with a penalty of more than 10 years in prison," said Dodi.