PENAJAM PASER, Indonesia — Indonesia’s escalating wildfire crisis has reached the outskirts of Nusantara, the new capital city under construction as the world’s fourth-most-populous country seeks to transplant its political heartland from a flood plain in Java to the island of Borneo. Fires in mid-September burned 30 to 40 kilometers (19 to 25 miles) from the perimeter of government buildings. The fires were reported at Wonotirto, near the main toll road, and at Bukit Tengkorak in the Bukit Soeharto protected forest. These wildfires were in the outer zone designated for Nusantara, authorities in the new capital said, but had stopped short of the construction site of the government complex. “Hopefully, it won’t reoccur,” Danis H. Sumadilaga, Nusantara authority spokesperson, said in a Sept. 9 statement. “We will have to conduct monitoring and patrols to ensure this fire doesn’t happen again.” On Sept. 14, forestry minister Raja Juli Antoni traveled to inspect the fires, along with the head of Indonesia’s disaster management agency and the lead of Ibu Kota Nusantara (IKN), the agency overseeing the new city, one of the world’s largest construction sites. Helicopters carrying giant buckets of water buzzed overhead as the officials surveyed the fragile landscape skirting the city. “It’s there again — where’s Manggala Agni?” the minister said, referring to the state fire brigade after spotting a suspected fire burning in the hills. “They need to get there, along with colleagues — there’s smoke again. “Please coordinate with the firefighters, army, police,” Raja Juli Antoni said on Sept. 14.…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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