Kupastuntas.co, Bandar Lampung - The Lampung Provincial Forestry Service will form a Forest and Land Fire Task Force (Karhutla) to be aware of the El Nino phenomenon which is feared to increase the number of hotspots, making it prone to forest and land fires.

"Currently we are preparing to form a karhutla task force. The tasks of the task force itself start from prevention to overcoming potential forest fires that might occur in Lampung," said Head of the Lampung Provincial Forestry Service Yanyan Ruchyansyah when questioned, Tuesday (2/5/2023).

Yanyan also explained that if the karhutla task force was formed, it was hoped that it would be able to prevent and detect hot spots anywhere that could cause forest fires.

"The potential for forest and land fires in Lampung is actually low because the area of peat land is only small, so the forest fires are not high, which usually burn in Way Kambas, East Lampung Regency. But this can still be controlled," he said.

Confirmed separately, the Director of the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) Lampung, Irfan Tri Musri said, in an effort to prevent karhutla from occurring, public awareness is also needed not to burn land for any reason.

"Hopefully this task force will have members of the community so that they are aware of the impact of fire on the environment. This requires education when it's dry, don't burn land," said Irfan.

On this occasion, he also asked the local government to cooperate with law enforcement to give strict sanctions to people who are proven to have set fire to forests on purpose.

"Such as when opening new arable land, people usually burn forests. This is something that must be given strict sanctions so that there is a deterrent effect," he said.

Based on data from the Lampung Provincial Forestry Service, there will be 2,953 hotspots in 2022. Where the most areas are South Lampung with 1,065 points, most of which occur in the Mount Anak Krakatau area, then in Way Kanan with 536 points, Tulang Bawang with 375 points.

Meanwhile, there will be 3,345 hotspots in Lampung Province in 2021. Where the most areas are Way Kanan 669 points, Tulang Bawang 641 points, North Lampung 543 points. (*)