REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, PEKANBARU -- The Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT) has sowed 6.2 tons of salt to trigger artificial rains over Riau province, which is currently being hit by forest and plantation fires.

"Yesterday, we aimed to sow salt in the eastern coastal areas of Riau. Till now, some 6.2 tons of salt has been sowed over the province," Coordinator of Climate Modification Technology Sutrisno said here on Thursday.

On Wednesday, some 2 tons of salt was sowed by a Casa 212-200 aircraft over Dumai and Rokan Hulu, where a number of hotspots were detected.

In addition to developing artificial rains, authorities also dropped water bombs over the fires from a helicopter.

Moreover, the Terra and Aqua Satellites detected 86 hotspots indicating forest fires in Riau province on Wednesday, according to the Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG).

"On March 4, at 7 a.m. Eastern Indonesian Time, the satellites detected a total of 96 hotspots over the Sumatran Island, with 86 of them in Riau," Pekanbaru Head of BMKG Sugarin affirmed.

Of the 86 detected hotspots in Riau, 55 had accuracy level above 70 percent, which indicated that they were the source of the forest fires.

In February, the local authority had declared an emergency response status over forest fires in the region due to the looming dry weather and the rampant land-clearing activities carried out by burning the vegetation.

In addition, the Riau Police has named 15 arsonists as suspects responsible for the forest fires that occurred in January and February this year.

The 15 suspects were caught red-handed while deliberately setting fires in different districts in Riau province, Chief of the Riau Police Brigadier General Dolly Bambang Hermawan told the press here on Thursday.

The police hope to find the masterminds behind these arson attacks by interrogating the suspects.

Furthermore, the Riau Police will focus on investigating the forest and plantation fires in the province.

"Investigations will continue because we suspect they were ordered to set the fires by other orchestrators," a spokesman for the Riau Police, Adjunct Senior Commissioner Guntur Aryo Tejo, stated.

The police will also probe the possible involvement of plantation companies in the setting of the forest fires in several districts.

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