Environmental agency workers clean up piles of logs washed ashore on Padang beach, West Sumatra, on Dec 2, 2025, after being swept along by the flash floods that struck the region. - AFO\P
JAKARTA: The deadly flooding that has killed hundreds in Indonesia was largely the result of monsoon rains and a rare tropical storm. But something else may have played a role: deforestation.
Environmentalists, experts and even Indonesia's government have pointed to the role forest loss played in flash flooding and landslides that washed torrents of mud into villages and stranded residents on roofs.
