The Kumai River is a river of

Central Kalimantan Central Kalimantan ( id, Kalimantan Tengah) is a province of Indonesia. It is one of five provinces in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. Its provincial capital is Palangka Raya and in 2010 its population was over 2.2 million, while the 2 ...

province,

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and eas ...

island,

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

.Sungai Kumai
- Geonames.org.

Location

The Kumai River originates in the Schwaner Mountains and flows south for to the

Java Sea The Java Sea ( id, Laut Jawa, jv, Segara Jawa) is an extensive shallow sea on the Sunda Shelf, between the Indonesian islands of Borneo to the north, Java to the south, Sumatra to the west, and Sulawesi to the east. Karimata Strait to its nort ...

. It empties into Kumai Bay. The bay has a mud bottom that gives a good anchorage in a depth of . The river is navigable by vessels with a draft of up to the village of

Kumai Kumai is a port in Central Kalimantan province in Indonesia, on the island of Borneo. It lies on the Kumai River. It was from here that the ''M/V Senopati Nusantara'' set out on its ill-fated voyage in December 2006. Administratively, Kumai is ...

on its right bank, from the entrance to the bay, and for further upstream. The depth at Kumai, a small river port with a government station and a landing pier at the custom house, is . Kumai Port is in

West Kotawaringin Regency West Kotawaringin Regency ( id, Kabupaten Kotawaringin Barat) is one of the thirteen regencies which comprise the Central Kalimantan Province on the island of Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia. The population of West Kotawaringin Regency was 235,80 ...

, from the capital,

Pangkalan Bun Pangkalan Bun is the capital of West Kotawaringin Regency in Borneo, Indonesia. It has a population of around 200,000 It is also the administrative headquarters of South Arut (''Arut Selatan'') district (''kecamatan''). Pangkalan Bun is served ...

, and is used for export of palm oil produced in the province.

Environment

Water volumes vary during the year, with highest volumes during the Northwest Monsoon. At some times of year the river contains relatively little mud. The river shows traces of salt water as high as upstream. The river runs through tropical lowland forest for most of its length. Near its estuary the vegetation is mainly nypa and

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. The term is also used for tropical coastal vegetation consisting of such species. Mangroves are taxonomically diverse, as a result of convergent evoluti ...

. The peat forest surrounding the Kumai River suffered from droughts and fires in 1982–83 and again in 1997–98. The

Tanjung Puting Tanjung Puting National Park is a national park in Indonesia located in the southeast part of West Kotawaringin Regency in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan (Central Borneo). The nearest main town is the capital of the Regency, Pan ...

park, about half of which is

peat swamp forest Peat swamp forests are tropical moist forests where waterlogged soil prevents dead leaves and wood from fully decomposing. Over time, this creates a thick layer of acidic peat. Large areas of these forests are being logged at high rates. Peat ...

, is famous for a population of about 4000

orangutan Orangutans are great apes native to the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia. They are now found only in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, but during the Pleistocene they ranged throughout Southeast Asia and South China. Classified in the genus ...

s. It is accessed from Kumai by speedboat down the Kumai River and then up the

Sekonyer River Sekonyer is a river in southern Borneo, Central Kalimantan province, Indonesia, about 700 km northeast of the capital Jakarta. Hydrology It is a tributary of the Kumai River, and is fed by the Camp Leakey River. Ecology Part of the river t ...

to Camp Leakey, a journey that takes about 1.5 hours. The Kumai River forms the northern border of the Tanjung Puting park. Beyond that the peat forest has been removed to make way for oil palm plantations.

Location

Environment

References

Sources

External links