Eight Orangutans Rescued From Borneo's Fires Are Released Into the Batu Nyambu Protected Forest

Not every rescue ends well. A male of about 20, named Sampurna, was found struggling to breathe on a palm oil plantation in Ketapang in early September and died hours later, the Forestry Ministry said. A female of three to four years, Novita, was found clinging to a nearly leafless tree in Central Kalimantan with burned palms and soles; she was taken to a rehabilitation centre, and staff will assess whether she can climb and survive in the wild once she heals.

Why are Borneo's fires so bad this year?

Forest and land fires have worsened as El Nino intensifies a long dry season; experts describe it as one of the strongest since records began about four decades ago. They also blame slash-and-burn land clearing. Government data show over 202,000 hectares burned from January to July, while the satellite monitor Nusantara Atlas counted nearly 896,000 hectares by the end of August. The haze has caused tens of thousands of respiratory illness cases and pollution spikes in Singapore and Malaysia, and Malaysia declared an emergency in Sarawak last week.

Fighting the fires is itself hard. Water shortages have hampered firefighters, and Japan has provided firefighting assistance to the island, The Star reports. Smoke has drifted as far as the Philippines, more than 800 kilometres away.

Why does this matter for orangutans?

Orangutans are critically endangered. The WWF estimates about 104,000 remain on Borneo and Sumatra, down from more than 230,000 a century ago. In September the IUCN warned that fires were burning habitats holding 52 per cent of Borneo's orangutan population.

A release does not end the story. The question for the dry weeks ahead is whether protected forests like Batu Nyambu can absorb more displaced animals, and whether the fires can be brought under control before the next rescue.