Indonesian Cabinet minister says tea plantation owner could be blamed for fatal landslide

Tree clearing suspected in Indonesian landslide

CIWIDEY, Indonesia — A tea plantation owner may have helped cause a landslide that killed up to 45 people in central Indonesia by cutting down too many trees, a Cabinet minister said Thursday.

Welfare Minister Agung Laksono said the government would investigate PT Cakra, the company that owns the Perkebunan Teh Dewata plantation in West Java, after large tracts of its terraced crops as well as buildings and staff houses were destroyed by a landslide triggered by heavy rain Tuesday.

After surveying the disaster area, Laksono questioned whether land clearing practices at the 740-acre (300-hectare) hillside farm were to blame. The company could be prosecuted if land clearing was excessive.

“The company should be held responsible and there needs to be an investigation into why it happened,” Laksono told reporters in Jakarta.

“I’ve seen all the tea plantation; it could have happened because of deforestation,” he added.

PT Cakra owner Teguh Kustiono blamed a magnitude 7.0 earthquake last September for weakening the hillside. That quake triggered a landslide nearby that killed 64.

“We think that the landslide was triggered by cracks in the forest floor caused by that earthquake,” Kustiono said.

Landslides have become more common in Indonesia, where native forests are being rapidly cleared. Tree roots help anchor hillside soil.

Searchers with sniffer dogs had found 21 bodies in the rubble by Thursday. Another 24 are thought to remain buried.

The list of dead and assumed dead was reduced by one on Thursday after a missing man was found safe miles (kilometers) from the search area, government official Syaiful Bahri said.