Indonesia could evacuate more people as the thick haze from forest fires continues to choke the island nation, UPI quoted authorities as saying Thursday. At a government news conference, Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Luhut Pandjaitan said major action is needed to deal with the haze from forest fires as weather reports forecast no rain until December and water-dropping aircraft are having little effect on fires still burning deep below peatland. Pandjaitan said following a high-level meeting with ministers and officials, plans were set to possibly evacuate babies and children to military or state-owned ships from the hardest hit areas like Sumatra and Kalimantan, where some schools have suspended classes. "There has to be a massive response to overcome this," Luhut said. The fires are due to slash-and-burn methods to clear forest and peatland for farming. Smoke has spread across to parts to Thailand and Malaysia, where the air quality levels have dropped in some cases to their worst in decade.
