Indonesia charges 72 over fires as haze chokes Borneo and Sumatra

Indonesian authorities have charged 72 people with intentionally setting forest fires across nine provinces on Borneo and Sumatra, allegedly to clear land for planting. Fires have burned nearly 286,000 hectares since January, an area half the size of Bali, worsened by dry conditions and El Niño.

The resulting haze has cut visibility to 10 meters in one province, drifted into Malaysia, and driven a sharp rise in respiratory infections, with one province seeing a 78% weekly jump in cases. Fires have also threatened an orangutan rehabilitation center in West Kalimantan.

Indonesia's disaster agency says it has contained hundreds of hectares of fire using aircraft water drops, ground crews, containment trenches, and cloud seeding, though the scale of ongoing burning suggests the response is still chasing the problem.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.