Nearly one million people are exposed to smoke, around 150k people are suffering from acute respiratory infections as Skies over an Indonesian province turned red over the weekend. The smoke is the result of widespread forest fires and it has plagued huge parts of the country.
The sky turned a feverish red in Indonesia due to unusually large forest fires pic.twitter.com/s4NRdzTBY4
— NowThis (@nowthisnews) September 23, 2019
The forest was converted to coconut farming. 42 companies have been sealed by the environment ministry. The red haze is causing a lot of discomforts, it hurts people’s eye and vision and made it difficult to breathe.
The red sky is caused by a phenomenon known as Rayleigh scattering, according to an Indonesian meteorology expert.
One user wrote on Twitter,
“This is not Mars. This is Jambi. We humans need clean air, not smoke.” ,” said user Zuni Shofi Yatun Nisa. “
Slash-and-burn is illegal in Indonesia, however, these fires often spill out of control, spread into protected Jungle and its nearby locations.