Who's to blame for the toxic smog choking South East Asia? Anger is mounting at the companies accused of burning land in Indonesia and the authorities who have failed to stop them.7 hrs agoAsia

As Indonesia battles its worst wildfire season in a decade, a toxic smog is choking millions of residents in the region.

The air on the islands of Kalimantan and Sumatra have turned an ominous amber, with air quality recorded at hazardous levels.

The smog – also known as the haze – has also drifted beyond Indonesia’s borders to neighbouring countries, raising public health concerns. It has obscured Singapore’s skyline and forced some schools to close in Malaysia.

Now, anger is mounting at the companies accused of burning farmland – as well as the authorities who have struggled to stop them.

According to independent forest monitoring platform Nusantara Atlas, 1,043,377 wildfire hotspots have been recorded in Indonesia, burning a total of 900,000 hectares of land.

Many of these fires in Indonesia’s forests and peatlands are caused by the razing of vegetation to clear land – a practice known as “slash and burn”.

This is an agricultural method that has traditionally been employed by farmers in Indonesia to create nutrient-rich soil for new crops.

But today, many of these fires are associated with commercial farming and are taking place on a much larger scale – and are harder to control. Activists and government investigations have repeatedly accused some companies of using fire as a cheap way to clear large swathes of land.

While slash-and-burn farming is illegal in Indonesia, enforcement of a ban has long proven tricky.

But persistent haze this year has prompted Indonesian authorities to step up efforts to punish offenders.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has called for tougher sanctions against slash-and-burn farming, describing the practice as “ecological terrorism”.

Last month, Indonesian authorities announced they had suspended the operating licences of 26 companies linked to the wildfires and launched investigations into others. Cases involving criminal elements would be taken to court, officials vowed.

But it’s not just Indonesian companies that have been embroiled in controversy amid the haze problem.

A Greenpeace report published this month identified businesses based in Singapore and Malaysia which are linked to plots of land in Indonesia where wildfires are burning.

This includes First Resources, a Singapore-based palm oil company. Between August and September more than 30 haze source points were recorded on land managed by its two Indonesian subsidiaries, according to Greenpeace.

First Resources told the BBC in a statement that it maintained a “strict zero burning policy across all planting activities and implement robust fire prevention, monitoring and firefighting measures throughout our operations”.

Greenpeace also named Malaysian plantation group Kuala Lumpur Kepong, whose subsidiary PT Menteng Jaya Sawit Perdana managed land in Indonesia where 19 haze source points were recorded.

Kuala Lumpur Kepong said in a statement that a “majority” of the fires originated from beyond its concession area and had all been extinguished.

“We do not condone or permit the use of open burning for land preparation or any other purpose across our operations,” it said.

It remains to be seen how effective governments can be in sanctioning offending companies.

In 2014, Singapore passed the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act which allows the government to take action against local and foreign firms found to be contributing to the haze.

The following year when Singapore saw a bad bout of haze, authorities issued summonses to several Indonesian companies thought to have cleared land by burning, in a bid to prosecute them under the new law.

But that drew sharp ire from Jakarta, which said the move harmed bilateral ties. And with Indonesia refusing to cooperate, Singapore authorities said they could not obtain information about the suspected companies.

Also in 2015, Indonesia’s then-Vice-President Jusuf Kalla angered Singaporeans when he said that “for 11 months, they enjoyed nice air from Indonesia and they never thanked us… they have suffered because of the haze for one month and they get upset”.

Similar tensions surfaced again last weekend when Syahganda Nainggolan, who leads Indonesia’s government communications agency, said the raging wildfires were beyond human control and added that the oxygen in neighbouring Singapore and Malaysia “also comes from our forests”.

“When there is no smoke, we send oxygen,” he added, in a video that has been widely circulated on social media, triggering criticism and ridicule from Malaysians and Singaporeans.

But Indonesia has in the past also apologised to its neighbours for causing the haze.

This year, Indonesian officials have thanked Singapore and Malaysia for offering to help tackle the wildfires – though it has not officially requested international support.

In Indonesia, there have been efforts by civil society to force the government to take action.

In Pontianak in the West Kalimantan province, several groups have filed a class action lawsuit against the Indonesian government and Prabowo, accusing them of “gross negligence” over recurrent toxic haze.

They want the government to declare the haze a national disaster, which would allow for recovery measures such as the coverage of healthcare costs.

A similar case was filed last year in South Sumatra, but it was dismissed.

Meanwhile, on the ground in Kalimantan and Sumatra, air pollution levels have remained at dangerous levels for weeks.

There are many who have no choice but to brave the toxic smog every day.

“I’m short of breath and have a headache breathing air now. But I still have to work,” Imrayedi, a 63-year-old motorcycle taxi driver in Pekanbaru city, on Sumatra island, told BBC Indonesian last week.

“The government must also think about the common people like us. Please take action to find a solution so that this haze problem can be resolved immediately.”