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Almost every day for months, Indonesian school teacher Natanael Undas looked up at the smoke-filled sky in apocalyptic shades of yellow and orange.
“It looks like Mars, like we’re living on another planet,” said Undas, whose home in central Kalimantan province is at the heart of devastating forest fires that are generating toxic smog in Indonesia and across Southeast Asia.
Although his family keeps the windows closed at all times, the noxious smoke penetrates the house anyway, sending Undas’ 2-year-old daughter into constant sneezing fits amid a spike in respiratory illnesses in haze-affected regions.
Forest fires are nothing new in Indonesia, whose forests and peatlands are set on fire every year as family and commercial farms clear the land using traditional “slash and burn” methods. But this year’s fires are much worse than usual, said Undas, who has been documenting Indonesia’s air quality on Instagram since 2014, as heat and drought exacerbated by a “super” El Niño weather pattern make this the country’s worst fire season in over a decade.
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Wildfire smoke covers the Indonesia sky in orange haze
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The relentless haze from the fires has affected millions of people in the region since they began in July, closing schools in many countries and arguments over who is to blame. Indonesian protesters have accused their government of not taking enough action, while other countries are threatening prosecution.
On Wednesday, hundreds of Indonesian students and members of civil society groups protested in the capital Jakarta and other cities against President Prabowo Subianto’s policies, including his resistance to declaring the fires a national disaster.
“We want transparent and independent investigations into these wildfires,” protester Natasha Ruvantina told NBC News. “And also, we want a long-term prevention strategy.”
The Indonesian government said in a statement on Wednesday that it acknowledged the students’ concerns, adding that it was tracking companies linked to the fires and sending aid to affected provinces.
The fires have also caused frustration in countries such as neighboring Singapore, where air pollution this month reached its highest level since 2015, when Indonesian forest fires were also fueled by El Niño. Singapore officials have threatened to prosecute companies seen as responsible for the destruction, and on Tuesday the foreign ministers of Singapore and Indonesia said they were considering a joint task force to combat illegal land burning.
“We will use the full force of the law to ensure that those who benefit from the fire must answer for the fire,” said Indonesian Foreign Minister Arrmanatha Nasir.
Indonesia’s neighbors and other countries have been accused of contributing to the problem.
In a report this month, Indonesian environmental organization Walhi named 66 companies with links to Singapore and 27 companies with links to Malaysia that it said were linked to fire hotspots. On Thursday, the Indonesian government said police had identified 20 companies suspected of being involved in the fires, including four from Singapore, Malaysia and South Korea.
