Cheduba Island ( my, မာန်အောင်ကျွန်း; also known as Manaung Island) is an

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

in the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean, bounded on the west and northwest by India, on the north by Bangladesh, and on the east by Myanmar and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands of India. Its southern limit is a line bet ...

close to

Ramree Island Ramree Island ( my, ရမ်းဗြဲကျွန်း; also spelled Yanbye Island) is an island off the coast of Rakhine State, Myanmar (Burma). Ramree island is the largest island in the entire Rakhine Coast and in Myanmar. The area of ...

and belongs to

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

, formerly Burma. It has a maximum length of , with an area of approximately Cheduba had a population of 63,761 as of 1983, composed chiefly of Burmese and Arakanese peoples. The main economic activities on the island are

farming Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled peopl ...

and cattle raising.

Geography

Cheduba Island lies about from the southwestern coast of

. It is located between 18° 40′ and 18° 56′ N. lat., and between 93° 31′ and 93° 50′ E. long. The

terrain Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin word ...

of the island is quite flat with scattered moderate elevations. The highest point is on a ridge in the southwestern part of the island. There are 5 villages connected by a road that circles the island: Owa, Thitpon, Manaung, Budaunggwe, Sachet and Meinmangwe. There is an airfield west of Manaung, the main village of Cheduba, located on the northeast coast. Manaung is linked to the village of Kyaukpyu on nearby

by steamer. Most of the vegetation is tropical

rainforest Rainforests are characterized by a closed and continuous tree canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforest can be classified as tropical rainforest or temperate rainfores ...

. There are mud

cone A cone is a three-dimensional geometric shape that tapers smoothly from a flat base (frequently, though not necessarily, circular) to a point called the apex or vertex. A cone is formed by a set of line segments, half-lines, or lines con ...

s that emit

steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizatio ...

and

sulfur Sulfur (or sulphur in British English) is a chemical element with the symbol S and atomic number 16. It is abundant, multivalent and nonmetallic. Under normal conditions, sulfur atoms form cyclic octatomic molecules with a chemical formul ...

ous fumes on the island, which indicate some

volcanic activity Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...

. There are also

seepage Soil mechanics is a branch of soil physics and applied mechanics that describes the behavior of soils. It differs from fluid mechanics and solid mechanics in the sense that soils consist of a heterogeneous mixture of fluids (usually air and wat ...

s of

oil and gas A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ...

Nearby islands

*Taik Kyun is a wide roughly round islet located off the eastern coast, about north of Ye Kyun. * Ye Kyun is a long and wide island located off the southeastern end of Cheduba Island, separated from it by a wide strait with numerous detached reefs. Highest point . *Taung Kyun is a long low islet located off the southern end of Ye Kyun. Highest point .

Other islands in the vicinity

* Unguan is a long and wide islet located to the southeast of Cheduba's southern end. * Nantha Kyun is a roughly wide round island located off the mainland coast, about SSE of Unguan. Highest point .

History

Cheduba Island was a stop on the coastal trade route from

Bengal Bengal ( ; bn, বাংলা/বঙ্গ, translit=Bānglā/Bôngô, ) is a geopolitical, cultural and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal, predom ...

by which

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

civilization migrated to Myanmar. Historical records show that an

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...

of a magnitude of 8.5 to 9.0 hit off the western coast of Myanmar in April 1762, and reports speculated that a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from ja, 津波, lit=harbour wave, ) is a series of waves in a water body caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater exp ...

could kill more than one million people in Myanmar and Bangladesh. In 1881, a 7.9 magnitude earthquake in the

caused "broad massive flames of fire" to be emitted on the island. In the 1780s, after the Burmese conquest of the area, Cheduba became a province of

Arakan Arakan ( or ) is a historic coastal region in Southeast Asia. Its borders faced the Bay of Bengal to its west, the Indian subcontinent to its north and Burma proper to its east. The Arakan Mountains isolated the region and made it accessi ...

. Cheduba was captured in 1824 by the British, whose possession of it was confirmed in 1826 by the

Treaty of Yandabo The Treaty of Yandabo ( my, ရန္တပိုစာချုပ် ) was the peace treaty that ended the First Anglo-Burmese War. The treaty was signed on 24February 1826, nearly two years after the war formally broke out on 5March 1824, by ...

concluded with the Burmese. The island, along with many other islands in the area, was evacuated and occupied by the

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

ese during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. An earthquake in 1858 caused an island nearby to disappear.

References

External links