A drone video released by environment activist group Greenpeace on 8 October, shows widespread forest fires and burnt peatland in Indonesias West Kalimantan province on Borneo.
The footage captured in September reveals that pockets of the Gunung Palung National Park and nearby palm oil concessions were on fire. The park has one of the worlds largest orangutan populations, Greenpeace said in a press release.
The source of the forest fires stems from companies using burning land for palm oil and pulp wood plantations on Sumatra and the Indonesian areas of Borneo. Data from the Indonesian government shows that at least 135,000 people are now suffering from respiratory illnesses.
Indonesian president Joko Widodo said he was in the process of asking Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and Japan for help to put out the fires. Although he did not elaborate on reasons why the call for help had come at this point in the crisis, he did say he would be requesting at least three aircraft from Singapore and Russia to help with the operation.
Indonesia routinely brushes off complaints while vowing to act to stop the burning, but year after year, the problem reappears in the dry season. Hazardous smoke has pushed up pollution to dangerous levels across parts of Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and southern Thailand, disrupted flights and closed schools on particularly bad days.
