TOKYO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A subsidiary of a Japanese firm is among 97 companies under investigation by Indonesian police over their suspected involvement in forest and land fires that have affected several islands in the country, Kyodo News reported Thursday.
During a live-streamed press conference, an Indonesian official identified the subsidiary by its initials, PT MTI, according to the report.
Indonesia has struggled for months to contain the wildfires. According to data from Nusantara Atlas, a deforestation monitoring platform, more than 1.9 million hectares of land in Indonesia had been burned by fires as of the end of September.
On Oct. 19, Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Dudung Abdurachman said the 97 companies were identified based on reports received by regional and national police units.
In a separate case, a massive grassland fire that broke out in Mongolia earlier this month was allegedly linked to the activities of a subsidiary of Japanese telecom giant KDDI. Preliminary data released by Mongolia's Ministry of Environment and Climate Change showed that the fire had scorched about 530,000 hectares of land, a large part of which lies within a strictly protected nature reserve. ■
