Choking smoke from forest fires shrouded Indonesia's side of Borneo island yesterday, grounding planes and pushing air quality way above hazardous levels in parts of the vast region, officials said. Flights had been delayed since Monday because of thick smoke covering at least two provinces on the island, which Indonesia calls Kalimantan and where smoke from fires creates health and environmental problems almost every year. Malaysia's environment minister said he had sent a letter to his Indonesian counterpart asking Jakarta to take more action to deal with the problem, the official Bernama news agency reported.