Sri Lanka

29 Oct 2024 13:27:04 pm

Tags : Sri Lanka

Topic: South Asia

Why in the news?

Sri Lanka’s election commission declared Anura Kumara Dissanayake, a previously fringe politician, the country’s President-elect after a vote coloured by discontent over the island nation’s response to an unprecedented financial crisis.

Source: The Hindu

About Sri Lanka:

It was historically known as Ceylon.
It is an island country in South Asia.
It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal.
It is separated from the Indian peninsula by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait.
It shares a maritime border with the Maldives in the southwest and India in the northwest.
It is shaped as a teardrop or a pear/mango.
It consists mostly of flat to rolling coastal plains, with mountains rising only in the south-central part. The highest point is Pidurutalagala (2,524 m. above sea level).
It has 103 rivers. The longest of these is the Mahaweli River, extending 335 km.
Its mangrove ecosystem spans over 7,000 hectares and played a vital role in buffering the force of the waves in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
It is rich in minerals such as ilmenite, feldspar, graphite, silica, kaolin, mica and thorium.
Existence of petroleum and gas in the Gulf of Mannar has also been confirmed, and the extraction of recoverable quantities is underway.
It is a democratic republic and a unitary state which is governed by a semi-presidential system. It is the oldest democracy in Asia. The Constitution of Sri Lanka officially declares it to be a socialist state.
It is a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM).
Presently, it is also a member of the Commonwealth, the SAARC, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, and the Colombo Plan

Gulf of Mannar:

It spans between the northwest coast of Sri Lanka and the southeast coast of India.
It is a part of the Laccadive Sea of the Indian Ocean.
It encompasses 21 islands.
It is bounded to the northeast by Rameswaram (island), Adam’s (Rama’s) Bridge (a chain of shoals), and Mannar Island.
It receives several rivers, including the Tambraparni (India) and the Aruvi (Sri Lanka).
The port of Tuticorin is on the Indian coast.
The gulf is noted for its pearl banks and sacred chank (a gastropod mollusk).