The city of Palangka Raya was suddenly covered in an orange haze, a thick blanket of smoke that blurred the skyline and made breathing difficult for the city’s 870,000 residents.
Witnesses captured footage of the smog rolling across the Kalimantan region as fires continued to flare in surrounding forests and plantations. The Indonesian Ministry of Environment’s National Air Quality Index saw a spike to 1,200 in the area, a level four times higher than the hazardous threshold of 300.
The haze is largely linked to Indonesia’s slash‑and‑burn agriculture, a method in which fields are cleared by cutting and burning vegetation. While the technique is cheap and quick, it releases massive amounts of particulate matter and carbon monoxide, choking streets not only in Indonesia but across Singapore and Malaysia.
Policymakers say stricter enforcement and incentives for alternative land‑clearing methods are essential. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) warns that continued use of slash‑and‑burn could worsen climate risks and threaten local communities’ health.
For a deeper look at how these fires are affecting the region, read a recent investigative piece here.
