Thai provinces blanketed in thick smoke due to Indonesia's forest fires

THAILAND: -- Several provinces in Thailand have been blanketed in a thick cloud of smoke as a result of raging forest fires in Indonesia.

In Songkhla, the smoke was reportedly so thick that it blocked out the sun and lowered visibility to some 500 metres.

Meteorological officials said the haze was carried over from Indonesia by the southwest monsoon.

Meanwhile, Indonesian authorities said a lack of proper equipment is making it difficult to contain forest fires in East Java while strong winds and dry leaves are hastening the spread.

The cause of the recent blazes is not yet known yet, but there are indications a cigarette butt might have been the cause.

The region traditionally experiences hazy weather, due to Indonesia's forest fires during this time of year.

Meanwhile the Indonesian Ministry of Environment said it would not hesitate to arrest the perpetrators of forest and land fires and sent them to prison after the issuance of a new environment law in September, Antara news agency reported.

Its Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the new law, which would be effective from September 8, would give the authority to coordinate with other relevant authorities to arrest those who burn forests and land bushes.

He said his office would directly fix police lines at the areas affected by fires and handcuff the perpetrators before imposing jail sentences upon them.

-- channelnewsasia.com

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The cause of the recent blazes is not yet known yet, but there are indications a cigarette butt might have been the cause.

????????????? The forest is ablaze, destroying everything, except one offending cigarette butt? Was it a Marlboro?

Worthy of being an explanation from a Thail police forensics team.

Meanwhile the Indonesian Ministry of Environment said it would not hesitate to arrest the perpetrators of forest and land fires and sent them to prison after the issuance of a new environment law in September, Antara news agency reported.

Its Minister Rachmat Witoelar said the new law, which would be effective from September 8, would give the authority to coordinate with other relevant authorities to arrest those who burn forests and land bushes.

He said his office would directly fix police lines at the areas affected by fires and handcuff the perpetrators before imposing jail sentences upon them.

-- channelnewsasia.com

It's about time ! There's almost nothing left

It's also about time they do it in Thailand too ! What are they waiting for ? That nothing's left out of the National Parks ?

Dayaks will get the blame again I suspect and this looks like a prime candidate for the fit up.

We have had fires burning almost on a daily basis and we are within 10 minutes of downtown Chiang Mai- can smell it , taste it, see the fires burning and nothing is done.

This was very very bad every year at this time in Singapore when I lived there back in the eighties up to 2002 when I left. The wind would eventually swing around in January and clear the Island, They could not stop it then and it seems they still can't. Problem is burning the forests to plant palm oil trees, the fires get underground into the peat which smokes for months. It's just greed as it is easier to burn the trees than it is to cut them and clear them properly. Often the land does not even belong to the people doing the burning.

It was so bad back then in Indonesia that two ships collided in the straits of Malacca, that same year a Garuda Airbus crashed over there because visibility was so bad.

KL also gets it bad as well, one year it was so bad they ran fire hoses from the high building to try and settle the smoke.

We have had fires burning almost on a daily basis and we are within 10 minutes of downtown Chiang Mai- can smell it , taste it, see the fires burning and nothing is done.

Well that isn't entirely true, there are signs saying not to burn. The real issue seems to be people completely ignoring that well knowing there will not be any enforcement of any type. People behind me regularly burn their garbage as presumably want to save the B20/mth collection fee.

Anyone notice that Indonesia {particularly Sumatra} has been on fire through seasonal cycles of the last ten years? Never used to be like that, certainly when Indo {as a rule} enjoys the rains from both cycled monsoon seasons......has been consistently drier in Sumatra.