"The land fires have been caused by people who clear their land by the traditional slash and burn method, so the fire spreads," national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purno Nugroho said. People are advised to monitor their land and not to slash and burn, especially since the current dry season makes it easy for forest fires to escalate, Nugroho added. Authorities are trying to put out the blazes and have warned of an escalating threat of forest fires with the dry season expected to continue for several months. The haze is an annual problem in Indonesia caused by fires set in forest and on carbon-rich peatland in Indonesia to clear land for palm oil and pulpwood plantations. The blazes occur mainly on Indonesia's Sumatra island and the Indonesian part of Borneo, with monsoon winds typically blowing the haze over nearby Singapore and Malaysia.

Source: The Nation Bangkok July 26, 2017 11:03 UTC