Padang, W Sumatra (ANTARA) - The West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) said here on Saturday that cloud seeding operations carried out from July 25 to 31, 2025, helped put out wildfires in Solok and Limapuluh Kota districts in the province.The BPBD focused the weather modification operations, especially cloud seeding, to induce rainfall in the two districts as they had declared a state of emergency for forest and land fires, the agency’s spokesperson, Ilham Wahab, said.
The cloud seeding operations in West Sumatra have now been terminated and redirected to provinces in the island of Kalimantan, which is currently struggling with wildfire mitigation during the ongoing dry season, he informed.
Despite the successful wildfire mitigation in Solok and Limapuluh Kota, the BPBD, the West Sumatra forestry office, and other government agencies in the province are exercising continued vigilance as forest and land fires still pose a threat to the province, he said.
On Friday, the forest and land fires laid waste to certain areas in Rao Selatan sub-district, Pasaman district, he said, adding the wildfires had burned one hundred hectares of land in the district.
As reported earlier, the wildfires in Sumatra have affected not only West Sumatra but also several other provinces, including Riau, Jambi, and North Sumatra.
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In North Sumatra, wildfires burned at least 422 hectares of land in Padang Lawas district during this year’s dry season.
In Riau, the police arrested 46 persons suspected to be involved in forest and land fire incidents.
According to the Ministry of Forestry, as of May 2025, wildfires burned 8,500 hectares of land across Indonesia, with the vast majority of land and forest fires caused by anthropogenic factors.
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Israr Albar, head of the ministry’s forest fire mitigation division, pointed out that nearly 100 percent of the wildfires were caused by humans, and the affected area could grow amid extreme environmental heat.
In response to the rising cases of wildfires during the dry season, President Prabowo Subianto has instructed his ministers to prepare anticipatory measures, especially in vulnerable areas in Kalimantan and Sumatra.
