Sumatra Island

 ABOUT SUMATRA ISLAND

 Sumatra (Indonesia: Sumatra) is a large island in western Indonesia which is part of the Sunda Islands.  This is the largest island that fully exists in Indonesia (after Kalimantan and Papua, shared between Indonesia and other countries) and the sixth largest island in the world at 473,481 km2 (excluding adjacent islands such as the Riau Islands and Bangka Belitung Islands).

 Sumatra is an elongated land that runs diagonally northwest-southeast.  The Indian Ocean is bordered by the west coast, northwestern coast, and southwestern Sumatra with the island chains Simeulue, Nias and Mentawai off the west coast.  In the northeast of the narrow Malacca Strait separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, which is an extension of the Eurasian continent.  In the southeast of the narrow Sunda Strait separates Sumatra from Java.  The northern tip of Sumatra borders the Andaman Islands, while off the southeast coast lies the islands of Bangka and Belitung, the Karimata Strait, and the Java Sea.  The Bukit Barisan Mountains, which contain several active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeast region contains large plains and lowlands with swamps, mangroves, and complicated river systems.  The equator crosses the island at its center in West Sumatra and Riauprovinces.  The island's climate is tropical, hot and humid.  Lush tropical rain forests once dominated the landscape.

 Sumatra has a variety of plant and animal species but has lost almost 50% of its tropical rainforest in the last 35 years.  Many species are now endangered, such as the Sumatran cuckoo, Sumatran tiger, Sumatran elephant, Sumatran rhino, and Sumatran orangutan.  Deforestation on the island also results in serious seasonal haze in neighboring countries, such as the 2013 Southeast Asia haze until 2019 which has caused great tensions between Indonesia and the affected countries, Malaysia and Singapore.

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