Crops fail as huge blazes send pall into Indonesian sky

Police tape marks off an area where a forest fire is under investigation in central Sumatra. Picture: PA

Vast forest fires in Indonesia have spawned an ecological disaster which have left 21 people dead, crops destroyed and a huge area of land scorched.

For farmer Achmad Rusli, it was a season of smoke: ten weeks without sunlight for his oranges, guavas and durians, thanks to deliberately set forest fires that burned a chunk of Indonesia the size of New Jersey.

The fires have finally died down with the arrival of monsoon rains, but too late for his crops, which are far too measly to sell. “We had not seen the sun in a two-and-a-half months,” said Rusli, 34, from Riau province, in eastern Sumatra, among the six hardest-hit provinces. “How can we harvest the fruit?”

The ecological disaster has inflicted a staggering toll on the region’s environment, economy and human health: 2.1 million hectares (8,063 square miles) of forests and other land burned, 21 deaths, more than half a million people ill with respiratory problems and $9 billion in economic losses, from damaged crops to hundreds of cancelled flights.