Indonesia uses cloud seeding to combat severe forest fires
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Indonesian authorities deployed fifteen aircraft to spray dry ice and salt into clouds to trigger rainfall across Borneo and Sumatra.
This weather modification campaign aims to extinguish massive forest fires that have destroyed thousands of hectares of land. The operation targets regions in Central and South Kalimantan on the island of Borneo, as well as South Sumatra. The fires originated from a combination of extreme drought and land clearing for new plantations.
These blazes have destroyed wildlife habitats and produced toxic smoke that reaches Malaysia and Singapore. The fires especially threaten the remaining wild populations of orangutans on Sumatra and Borneo. President Prabowo Subianto ordered stricter punishments for companies responsible for the fires. The Ministry of Forestry imposed administrative sanctions on 32 companies, and six firms in Central Kalimantan had to suspend their operating licenses. The government also required these companies to restore the damaged ecosystems.
