Indonesian police arrested 72 people on Sunday, August 23, 2026, on suspicion of starting forest and peatland fires across Borneo and Sumatra. The blazes have triggered a severe choking haze that reduced visibility to 10 meters and forced the closure of nearly 600 schools in neighboring Malaysia.
Authorities across Indonesia are scrambling to contain an escalating crisis as fires driven by an intensifying El Niño pattern and prolonged dry season tear through the islands of Borneo and Sumatra. The disaster has prompted massive emergency deployments, international smoke spillover, and a direct criminal investigation into the economic actors behind the land-clearing blazes.
Arrests Target Illegal Land Clearing Across Borneo and Sumatra
National Police arrested 72 individuals tied to 89 separate forest and land fire cases, according to Mohammad Irhamni, director of special crimes at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency. Investigators report that the majority of those detained are suspected of deliberately burning land to cheaply establish agricultural plantations.
The dragnet spans five provinces on Borneo and four on Sumatra. Rather than stopping with low-level agricultural workers, financial investigators are actively examining corporate records to identify who financed and ordered the burns.
“We will not stop at the perpetrators on the ground,” Irhami said in a news conference Sunday in the capital, Jakarta. “We will determine who benefited from these activities and who was ultimately behind them.”
Irhami, director of special crimes at the National Police’s Criminal Investigation Agency
Suspects linked to the deliberate fires face penalties ranging from hefty fines to prison terms of up to 15 years.
President Prabowo Subianto Inspects Burned Peatlands in Central Kalimantan
Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto flew to Central Kalimantan province on Saturday to evaluate disaster relief efforts. More than 7,600 hectares have burned in the province alone, contributing to a massive regional spike in hotspot activity.
Accompanying the president was Prasetyo Hadi, head of the State Secretariat, who confirmed that at least four companies in West Kalimantan are under active investigation for allegedly using fire for land clearance. If proven culpable, these corporations face severe sanctions, including the revocation of their operating permits.
Environment Ministry officials also inspected fires within the palm oil concession area operated by PT Bintang Harapan Palma in South Sumatra’s Ogan Komering Ilir regency after detecting clusters of hotspots inside the property boundaries.
Escalating Hotspots and Massive Haze Disruption Across Southeast Asia
Government wildfire monitoring data recorded 1,250 hotspots in a single week, up from 1,187 the previous week, with more than 900 concentrated in Kalimantan. Total hotspots for August reached 3,736, surging past July’s total of 758 before daily counts began dropping.
The Indonesian forestry ministry noted that while daily hotspot figures have fallen sharply, the overall risk remains high. Total land scorched from January through July reached 202,004 hectares, jumping dramatically from 107,465 hectares recorded between January and June.
National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) chief Suharyanto stressed that peatland blazes present unique firefighting challenges.
“Fires that appear extinguished on the surface may still contain embers underneath, so sufficient rainfall is crucial to rewet the peat and fully suppress the fires.”
Suharyanto, BNPB chief
To combat the blazes, authorities deployed 30 helicopters over Kalimantan for water-bombing and aerial patrols, alongside another 22 helicopters covering Sumatra. Cloud-seeding operations resumed over Kalimantan on Sunday.
School Closures in Malaysia as Air Quality Plummets
The dense smoke has strained regional relations, heavily impacting neighboring Malaysia. The eastern state of Sarawak bore the brunt of the pollution, with one district registering very unhealthy air quality on Friday and eight other districts posting unhealthy readings.
The worsening haze prompted the Sarawak government to order the closure of nearly 600 schools, disrupting education for approximately 200,000 students. With weather agencies warning that El Niño conditions could persist into early 2027, authorities remain on high alert through the critical August-to-September fire season window.
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