Dousing the flames: Firefighters extinguishing a fire in Kampar, Riau province, to prevent a repeat of the 2015 fires. — AFP
Jakarta: The Indonesian authorities are stepping up efforts to battle forest fires as the number of hot spots has climbed steadily in the past weeks and smoke has blanketed parts of Sumatra and Kalimantan since last week.
At least 644 hot spots were detected across the archipelago from July 31 to Aug 6, and the figure rose about 16% to 749 from Aug 7 to 13, according to the Environment Ministry’s forest fire monitoring system.
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