Pekanbaru: The number of fires in Indonesia’s rainforests has jumped sharply, satellite data showed, spreading smog across South-East Asia and adding to concerns about the impact of increasing wildfire outbreaks worldwide on global warming.

Illegal burning to clear land for agricultural plantations have been raging on Sumatra and Borneo, with Indonesia deploying water-bombing helicopters and thousands of security forces to tackle them.

It is just the latest such outbreak worldwide – huge blazes have torn through the Amazon in South America while bushfires are sweeping across eastern Australia in an unusually ferocious and early start to the wildfire season.

Indonesia’s forest fires are an annual problem but have been worsened this year by particularly dry weather, and in recent days sent toxic smog floating over Malaysia and triggered a diplomatic row.

The number of “hotspots” – areas of intense heat detected by satellite which indicate a high chance of fire -- jumped sharply in Indonesia on Wednesday, according to the Singapore-based Asean Specialised Meteorological Centre.

There were 1,619 hotspots detected on the Indonesian part of Borneo and Sumatra up from 861 a day earlier, according to a tally from the centre, which monitors forest fires and smog outbreaks.

Kiki Taufik, a forests campaigner with Greenpeace in Indonesia, said there has been little rain in the past fortnight, particularly on Indonesian Borneo which saw the sharpest increase in hotspots.

Borneo is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

Taufik saw similarities between the blazes in Indonesia and those in the Amazon, where farmers also start fires to clear land for agriculture.

“This should remind people we are facing a climate crisis, ” he said of the recent fires around the world.

“Industries are looking to expand plantations using fires.”

And he warned Indonesia’s fires would add to the sprawling archipelago’s climate-damaging emissions, already among the highest in the world. — AFP