Sumatra

Sumatra

Topography of Sumatra
Location of Sumatra within the Indonesian Archipelago
Geography
Location	Southeast Asia
Coordinates	00°N 102°E / 0°N 102°E / 0; 102
Archipelago	Indonesian Archipelago Greater Sunda Islands
Area	482,286.55 km2 (186,211.88 sq mi)
Highest elevation	3,805 m (12484 ft)
Highest point	Kerinci
Administration
Indonesia
Provinces	Aceh North Sumatra West Sumatra Riau Jambi Bengkulu South Sumatra Lampung
Largest settlement	Medan (pop. 2,097,610)
Demographics
Population	60,795,669 (mid 2023 estimate)
Pop. density	126/km2 (326/sq mi)
Ethnic groups	Acehnese, Batak, Gayonese, Lampung, Malay, Nuwi, Mentawai, Minangkabau, Nias, Palembang, Rejang, Chinese, Indian, Javanese, Sundanese etc.
Additional information
Time zone	Indonesia Western Time (UTC+7)

Sumatra^[a] (/sʊˈmɑːtrə/) is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km² (182,812 mi.²), including adjacent islands such as the Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, Enggano, Riau Islands, Bangka Belitung and Krakatoa archipelago.

Sumatra is an elongated landmass spanning a diagonal northwest–southeast axis. The Indian Ocean borders the northwest, west, and southwest coasts of Sumatra, with the island chain of Simeulue, Nias, Mentawai, and Enggano off the western coast. In the northeast, the narrow Strait of Malacca separates the island from the Malay Peninsula, which is an extension of the Eurasian continent. In the southeast, the narrow Sunda Strait, containing the Krakatoa Archipelago, separates Sumatra from Java. The northern tip of Sumatra is near the Andaman Islands, while off the southeastern coast lie the islands of Bangka and Belitung, Karimata Strait and the Java Sea. The Bukit Barisan mountains, which contain several active volcanoes, form the backbone of the island, while the northeastern area contains large plains and lowlands with swamps, mangrove forest and complex river systems. The equator crosses the island at its centre in West Sumatra and Riau provinces. The climate of the island is tropical, hot, and humid. Lush tropical rain forest once dominated the landscape.

Sumatra has a wide range of plant and animal species but has lost almost 50% of its tropical rainforest in the last 35 years.^{[clarification needed]} Many species are now critically endangered, such as the Sumatran ground cuckoo, the Sumatran tiger, the Sumatran elephant, the Sumatran rhinoceros, and the Sumatran orangutan. Deforestation on the island has also resulted in serious seasonal smoke haze over neighbouring countries, such as the 2013 Southeast Asian haze which caused considerable tensions between Indonesia and affected countries Malaysia and Singapore.^[2] The widespread deforestation and other environmental destruction in Sumatra and other parts of Indonesia has often been described by academics as an ecocide.^{[3][4][5][6][7]}

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