Indonesia forest fires, attacks kill 1,000 orangutans
6 November 2006
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About 1,000 orangutans are estimated to have died in Indonesia during the dry season this year in which raging forest fires have produced thick smoke across huge areas of Southeast Asia, a conservationist said on Monday.The fires in the Indonesian part of Borneo have deprived orangutans of food and forced them to encroach on human settlements, where they are often attacked for damaging crops, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said.
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He estimated that in all 1,000 orangutans had died over this year’s dry season.
Orangutans live on the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, but encroachment on their habitats by humans and massive destruction of forests is threatening their existence.
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Most of the annual dry season fires are deliberately lit by farmers or at the behest of timber and oil palm plantation companies.
Indonesia’s neighbors, Singapore and Malaysia have grown increasingly frustrated by the fires which triggered fears of a repeat of the choking situation that hit the region in 1997-98.
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