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Prolonged dry season leads to more wildfires in national parks
Wildfires engulfed several more national parks in Indonesia as a prolonged dry season triggered by El Nino continued to sweep the southern part of the country.
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Firefighters look at a fire burning forest and savanna on Mount Bromo from an observation post in Malang, East Java, on Sept. 12, 2023. Strong wind and extreme terrain hindered authorities and volunteers from putting out the fire and preventing it from spreading to another part of the mountain. (Antara/Muhammad Mada)
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ildfires have engulfed several more national parks as a prolonged dry season triggered by the climate phenomenon El Nino continues to sweep the southern part of the country.
Firefighters are still scrambling to put out the large fire that has been burning through savanna fields in Baluran National Park in Situbondo, East Java, since Saturday.
The fire, which according to authorities was caused by carelessly disposed cigarette butts, has forced officials to close the national park until the end of this week.
Instances of wildfires had been reported in Baluran earlier. Authorities record that some 2,000 hectares out of the park's total 25,000 ha of land have been scorched by wildfires since April.
Baluran National Park is home to some 440 types of plants and more than a dozen endemic animals, including crested serpent eagles, long tail macaques and green peafowls.
On Monday afternoon, a fire also broke out in the savanna of the Mount Gede Pangrango National Park (TNGGP) in Cianjur, West Java. Some 100 firefighters managed to put out the fire in four hours.
Authorities estimated that around 3 ha of the national park were burned by the blaze.
