BNPB conducts weather modification to protect Way Kambas elephants

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3 hours ago

Jakarta (ANTARA) – The National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) said the weather modification (OMC) in East Lampung was aimed not only at preventing health disruptions to humans but also at protecting the elephants in the area from wildfires.

Acting Head of BNPB’s Disaster Data, Information, and Communication Center Berton SP Panjaitan said here on Thursday that protecting the habitat of the protected animals is a special concern of President Prabowo Subianto in national efforts to handle forest and land fires.

“The President has given special attention to handling the situation in Lampung Province and protecting elephant conservation at Way Kambas National Park, East Lampung,” he said.

Panjaitan explained that the salt seeding material (NaCl) was focused on East Lampung because potential rain cloud growth was detected there that could wet forest areas and extinguish fire hotspots.

BNPB confirmed that over two days of operations on August 26-27, the task force team flew from Raden Inten II Airport and dispersed a total of 1,600 kilograms of seeding salt, successfully triggering light rain in the main target area.

The rainfall was expected to wet forest cover as well as peat mineral soils in Way Kambas National Park, making them less prone to burning, thereby minimizing the impact on the environment, including on Sumatran elephants.

Way Kambas National Park has reported at least 261 Sumatran elephants (Elephas maximus sumatranus) inhabiting the conservation area, of which 160-180 are wild elephants.

“The operation has successfully triggered light rain in Bandar Sribawono, Karanganyar, and areas around the national park,” he said.

He stressed that this step was taken following an increasing trend of hotspots based on satellite monitoring by NOAA20 Sipongi from the Forestry Ministry, which surged to 26 points on Thursday (August 27), with a total burned land area of 674.5 hectares by the end of August, as reported by Lampung’s forest and land fire task force.