REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PADANG -- The US National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) detected 61 hot spots on Sumatra Island, according to the Ketaping Padang meteorology, climatology and geophysics agency (BMKG). Most of the hot spots were located in Riau Province and around 20 in West Sumatra.

"The hot spots were detected in West Sumatra, Riau, Jambi, Bengkulu and South Sumatra Provinces, and producing haze that is blanketing the areas," Padang BMKG head Syafrizal said in Padang on Thursday.

Yet, he could not confirm whether the hot spots were from forest fires or burning to clear new plantation areas. "The haze will go during rains which will also extinguish the hot spots that produced the haze," he said.

BMKG predicts that rains will fall this week. The Indonesian government appears to be determined to reduce the number of forest fire hot spots by 20 percent annually in order to meet the country`s pledge to cut its gas emissions by 26 percent by 2020. Around 77 percent of forest fires in Indonesia occurred in plantation and agricultural areas, and only 23 percent in forest area, as fire is considered the cheapest, fastest, and most effective a land clearing method. 

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika