Dozens of planes and tens of thousands of personnel continue to battle extensive forest fires across Indonesia, particularly on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, as the country grapples with the resulting toxic haze affecting neighboring Malaysia and Singapore. Indonesian Cabinet Secretary Teddy Indra Wijaya confirmed that since last month, 64 aircraft and 54,000 personnel have been deployed to carry out water bombing and ground firefighting operations.

Officials describe the large scale of the affected areas and the complex nature of peatland fires as major obstacles to containment efforts. Daniel Sinyor, spokesman for the disaster mitigation agency in West Kalimantan province—one of the hardest-hit regions—highlighted the difficulty of extinguishing fires burning at various depths within the peat soils. Additionally, limited availability of water sources, which in some affected areas have diminished or disappeared, further complicates firefighting activities.

Indonesia’s President Prabowo Subianto has expressed willingness to accept assistance from Malaysia, which has been severely impacted by haze pollution and dry conditions resulting from the fires. Malaysian authorities recently initiated cloud seeding operations across three southern states aiming to sustain water resources and alleviate haze levels.

The severity of this year’s fires has prompted legal action from indigenous and civil society groups in West Kalimantan, who last week filed a class action lawsuit against the Indonesian government, including the president and the local governor. The plaintiffs allege government negligence, arguing that the annual recurrence of such fires demonstrates prior awareness of the risks posed by forest and land fires and associated haze disasters. Advocate Glorio Sanen stated that the disaster’s repetitive nature signals that the government knew about and failed to adequately mitigate these dangers.

This year’s blazes coincide with an intense dry season typically spanning July to October, which experts link in part to the developing El Niño climate phenomenon—considered the strongest in over forty years—as well as ongoing climate change, extensive forest degradation, and continued use of slash-and-burn techniques for land clearing. According to official government data, more than 202,000 hectares were burned in Indonesia between January and July, while independent assessments from the Nusantara Atlas project estimate that nearly 300,000 hectares were affected during this period, with the total reaching nearly 896,000 hectares including August.

Supporting firefighting efforts, around 350 personnel from Japan’s Self-Defense Forces have recently arrived in West Kalimantan. Despite these combined responses, officials acknowledge the persistent challenges posed by the fires and emphasize ongoing efforts to protect public health and reduce smoke impact across the region.