JAKARTA (AP): Indonesian police said Thursday (Sept 19) that they have arrested 230 people suspected of starting fires that are spreading health-damaging haze across a large part of South-East Asia.
Among those arrested are three men who were caught Monday while trying to clear land to plant crops in the Tesso Nilo National Park, which is home to about 140 endangered wild elephants, said Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesman.
Indonesia's fires are an annual problem that strain relations with neighbouring countries. The smoke from the fires has blanketed parts of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and southern Thailand in a noxious haze. In addition to the arrests, Indonesian authorities have also sealed off land owned by at least 49 plantation companies in the past week for investigation after fires were found on their land.
The agency said 44 helicopters had dropped more than 270 million litres of water and 163 tons of salt for cloud seeding as part of the firefighting efforts.
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