The Government is Aware of Karhutla in 6 Provinces, the Area of Burned Land Reaches 100 Thousand Hectare

Illustration of forest fires (ANTARA)

JAKARTA - The government has increased vigilance against forest and land fires (karhutla) in six provinces in Indonesia. Monitoring is carried out strictly to anticipate the spread of the fire location in the midst of dry weather conditions.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs (Menko Polkam) Djamari Chaniago said the six provinces of concern to the government are Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan, and South Kalimantan.

This was conveyed by Djamari at a press conference on forest and land fires at the Ministry of Home Affairs' Polkam office, Central Jakarta, Monday, August 10.

"What we are aware of is indeed in the six provinces, starting from Riau, Jambi, South Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and South Kalimantan and we have controlled it until now," said Djamari.

Djamari explained that the government not only monitored the six provinces. Forest and land fires that occurred in other areas were also immediately handled to prevent the fire from spreading.

One of them was a fire that occurred in the Gunung Bromo area, East Java. According to Djamari, the fire in the area has been successfully controlled and only left one fire location.

"If the six (provinces) we monitor closely. There are those outside (six provinces), such as yesterday's fire in Bromo, we immediately finished it. Last night it was finished, there was only one location of fire," he explained.

In addition to Mount Bromo, the fire in the Gede-Pangrango Mountains area, West Java, was also said to have been completed. A similar condition occurred around Mount Rinjani, West Nusa Tenggara.

"Then in West Java it is also finished, in Gunung Gede-Pangrango there, it is also finished. Then around Rinjani there is also, it is also finished," added Djamari.

Djamari also revealed that the area of forest and land that had burned in Indonesia until the beginning of August 2026 had reached more than 100,000 hectares. The government continues to take various steps to control fires, including weather modification operations (OMC).

Djamari hopes that the government can find a rain cloud in the next few days so that the OMC can be carried out immediately. "Hopefully we hope this week until August 18, we will find a rain cloud so that we can then do the OMC," he said.

According to Djamari, the presence of rain clouds is an important factor for the implementation of OMC. If these conditions are met, the government hopes that weather modification operations can help accelerate the handling of forest and land fires in a number of regions in Indonesia.