Hundreds of students in the Indonesian city of Palangkaraya protested on Friday, demanding more effective government action as toxic smoke from wildfires has blanketed the city and the surrounding area for months.
Many of the students wore surgical masks. The sky had an unnatural orange glow, and thick smoke cut visibility sharply.
The protesters called on the government to declare a national emergency, which would free up more money to fight the fires and help those affected.
The fires are burning in Central Kalimantan province, in the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo.
A placard stuck on the outer wall of the provincial governor’s office read: “Officials are fools, yet they enjoy great perks. And ordinary people’s lives are miserable.”
The protesters sang the patriotic song “Indonesia Pusaka” and scuffled briefly with police.
No injuries or arrests were reported. The protesters left peacefully at night.
“We call on the Central Kalimantan provincial government to state clearly that it is unable to deal with this disaster. Then the situation can be formally declared a national disaster,” protest leader Yuyun Sanjaya told the crowd.
According to the deforestation monitor Nusantara Atlas, more than 1.9 million hectares of land burned in the nine months from January to September this year. The Indonesian government has neither confirmed nor denied the figure.
Smoke from the fires has made hundreds of thousands of people ill in Indonesia, and has spread as far as Malaysia, Singapore and East Timor.
Alongside diplomatic displeasure from neighbouring countries, public anger at the government is growing at home, and scattered anti-government protests have taken place in different areas.
On Thursday, schoolchildren on the island of Java prayed for rain.
Several districts and protected forests on that island have also been badly damaged by wildfires.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report