Prabowo meets Panglima Jilah, adds personnel to fight West Kalimantan fires
Aid will expand to include helicopters and cloud seeding as West Kalimantan records 38,310 hectares burned.
President Prabowo Subianto met West Kalimantan Dayak leader Panglima Jilah at the State Palace in Jakarta on Friday (28/8) to discuss efforts to deal with forest and land fires in West Kalimantan. After the meeting, Panglima Jilah said the government had already provided support through additional personnel, and that the move had begun about a week earlier. He also said Prabowo approved strengthening the response by adding helicopters and carrying out cloud seeding. According to BNPB data as of Aug. 23, forest and land fires in Indonesia had reached 72,798 hectares, with West Kalimantan the worst-hit area at 38,310 hectares. Panglima Jilah said the most immediate problem for residents was haze, which was affecting health, especially among children, and urged that indigenous farmers not be automatically blamed as the source of the smoke.