Easter Island on fire, "irreparable damage to Moai"
Some of the symbolic statues have been charred, there is talk of "arson"
Several Moai , the heads carved by the Rapa Nui indigenous people five hundred years ago, were heavily damaged as a result of the fires that occurred on Easter Island, a territory that is part of Chile.
A fire , which broke out last Monday, is defined by the mayor of Rapa Nui, Pedro Edmunds Paoa, " 99.9 percent malicious ".
Environmental and cultural agencies speak of "irreparable damage" to heritage , which risk undermining the area that is now trying to revive tourism after the coronavirus pandemic.
The flames, driven by the strong wind, have incinerated 100 hectares of the island , seriously affecting the area of the crater of the Rano Raraku volcano, where there are about 400 Moai, and the quarry of the stone with which the statues were made.
According to estimates by the Rapa Nui Environmental Protection Brigade, part of the Chilean National Forest Corporation, the fire caused chemical alterations in the stone composition of the statues and "it is estimated that several dozen have been affected". In addition, the flames had "a negative impact on the island's biodiversity and may have put some of the region's native species at risk".
Easter Island has almost a thousand Moai , generally about 4 meters high and sculpted between 1400 and 1650 to form a ring around the territory. With sunken eyes and long ears, to the Rapa Nui people they are considered the living embodiment of an ancestor .
(Unioneonline / ss)
