TEMPO.CO, Malang - Massive land and forest fires are still raging on Mount Arjuna in East Java, and are even spreading to the Mount Welirang areas. About 4,000 hectares of forest and land have been burnt.

Most of the affected forest and land were located under the authority of the Raden Soerjo Forest Park Unit of the East Java Forestry Agency. Raden Soerjo Tahura is a nature reserve area of 27,868 hectares located in the cluster of the Arjuno-Welirang-Anjasmoro mountain complex. Administratively, it is within the territory of Mojokerto Regency, Malang Regency, Pasuruan Regency, Jombang Regency, and Batu City.

Among these areas, Jombang is the least affected by the fire, while the tourist city of Batu is the worst hit area.

Agung Sedayu, the acting head of the Batu Regional Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD), reported that the fire had scorched about 907 hectares of forest and land in four villages in Bumiaji District, namely Bulukerto, Sumbergondo, Tulungrejo, and Sumberbrantas.

As a result, the Batu city administration declared an emergency response status. “We, together with other related elements, have made a number of efforts to extinguish the fire both by land and by air. We are extinguishing the fire by using water bombing from helicopters,” Agung told Tempo on Thursday night, September 7, 2023.

The Batu BPBD deployed a joint team of about351 personnel to extinguish the fire by land, via the Brakseng hiking trail in Sumberbrantas Village (63 personnel) and the Luhur Giri Arjuno Temple route in Tulungrejo Village (6 personnel).

East Java BPBD Chief Executive Gatot Soebroto said the forest and land burned since August 26 reached 4,403 hectares. Strong winds are accelerating the spread of the blaze and extreme terrain is making it difficult to extinguish them.

The forest and land fire on Mount Arjuna and its surroundings was first observed to appear in the Bukit Budug Asu area, Toyomarto Village, Singosari District, Malang Regency, on Saturday night, August 26, 2023. It was allegedly sparked by hunters to force the animals to come out. The fire spread quickly due to dry vegetation during the long dry season, including the remains of previous fires, and strong winds.

The fires damaged the ecosystem and biodiversity of the 3,339-meter above-sea-level volcano, the second-highest mountain in East Java Province after Mount Semeru. In addition to the environmental damage, a lot of flora and fauna died and tourism players lost income as the Mount Arjuna area was off-limits to tourists.

ABDI PURMONO (CONTRIBUTOR)

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