JAKARTA: The number of forest fires in some areas of Indonesia has decreased, and no cloud has been seen moving to Malaysia, according to Indonesia’s environment minister on Friday, October 6, a time after its neighbor Jakarta urged Jakarta to act as the air quality deteriorated.
In an interview with Reuters, Malaysia’s secretary of natural resources, the atmosphere, and climate change, Nik Nazmi, stated that the cloud should not become a new norm and that he had asked his Indian equivalent to address it.
” I’m not sure what foundation Malaysia had when making those claims. According to Siti Nurbaya, the environment minister, we are never acting at Malaysia’s demand.
According to experts, flames that sent cloud billowing across the area in 2015 and 2019 burned thousands of hectares of land and generated emissions that broke records.
Nearly every dry time, smoke from fires to clear land for palm oil, flesh, and report estates in Indonesia blankets much of the area, posing health risks as well as threats to tourists and flights.
The Indian minister added that although there have been fewer forest fires in some areas of Sumatra and Borneo, the government is still putting out the flames.
Her comments came as South Asian ministers of agriculture and forestry decided to work together to reduce and ultimately eradicate crop burning in the area.
Following a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations( ASEAN ) in Malaysia, members acknowledged” the negative environmental and health impacts of crop burning practices” and pledged to collectively reduce and phase them out.