TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Local residents and merchants in the vicinity of the recently-erupted Mount Tangkuban Parahu have spent the last couple of days holding mass prayers or Istigosah in their attempt to stop the mountain’s constant eruptions.

“We assured local residents and merchants remain to be patient and pray so that the eruption can be stooped,” said the Tangkuban Parahu Park management Putra Kaban at the location on Tuesday.

Putra Kaban said that the mass prayer attracted at least 400 people.

The Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Minister Ignasius Jonan arrived at the PVMBG monitoring post said that the status of the active mountain has increased from Level I (normal) to Level II (Alert) since July 26. The safe perimeter has been set to 1.5 kilometers around the mountain’s “kawah ratu” crater.

This has effectively barred any human activities from being held in the vicinity of the area, including roughly the 5,000 merchants who often sell goods around Tangkuban Parahu’s crater.

Putra Kaban maintains that praying is the only way to help resolve the situation, ask for mercy, and the only solution to the natural occurrence. “Nature is Allah’s might, what we can do is to pray,” he says. As for the financial losses, Putra argues that it would be unethical to calculate the losses due to a natural disaster.

ANWAR SISWADI