Seven hotspots detected in Riau

Pekanbaru, Riau, Jan 4 (Antaranews Riau) - The Terra and Aqua satellites detected seven hotspots indicating forest fires in Riau Province on Friday.

The confidence rate of the satellite image was above 50 percent, Bibin, an analyst of the Pekanbaru meteorology, climatology, and geophysics office, stated here, Friday.

Of the seven hotspots, four were found in Rokan Hilir, two in Dumai, and one in Rokan Hulu.

Five out of the seven hotspots were believed to be forest fires, specifically three in Rokan Hilir and two in Dumai City.

The Riau disaster mitigation office had earlier noted that peatland measuring 15 hectares had been gutted by fire over the past week. The local authorities were attempting to put out the fires.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has managed to reduce hotspots over the last several years.

Based on data obtained from NOAA`s satellites, 21,929 hotspots were found across Indonesia in 2015, and the figure dropped to 3,915 in 2016, and again to 2,257 in 2017, according to Raffles B. Panjaitan, director of forest and plantation fire control of the environmental affairs and forestry ministry, last year.

The wild fires had razed a total of 2,611,411 hectares in 2015, and the figure decreased to 438,360 hectares in 2016 and again to 165,464 hectares in 2017.

Reporting by Anggi Romadhoni