Wikipedia
The Kotra (; ) is a river in Belarus and Lithuania. The river is known due to a rare phenomenon of river bifurcation.
At first, the Kotra and Ūla form one river, known as the Pelesa, which originates in Belarus and flows in a northwestern direction. Just past the Belarus–Lithuania border, between the villages of Paramėlis and Kazliškės, some southeast of Varėna, it branches out into two independent rivers: the Kotra, a tributary of the Neman, and the Ūla, a tributary of the Merkys. This situation arose in the second half of the 19th century when the Ūla, due to its channel erosion, crossed the water divide between its own and the Kotra's drainage basins. As a result, the Ūla enlarged its basin by some and the Kotra lost two of its tributaries. These processes also caused a decrease in groundwater levels and the almost total disappearance of several large lakes located in the site.
The Kotra flows along the Belarus–Lithuania border for and the remaining through Belarus. It then flows along the southern border of Čepkeliai Marsh, the area protected as a nature reserve With the changes in drainage basins and groundwater levels, some of open marshes overgrew with trees. The Kotra and its surrounding marshes form wetlands of international importance: Kotra Ramsar site and Cepkeliai Ramsar site Varėna district municipality established a reservoir to protect the natural Kotra environment.
Kotra may refer to:
- KOTRA, a Korean trade promotion organization
- Kotra, Uttar Pradesh, a town in Jalaun district, Uttar Pradesh state, India
- Kotra, Berasia tehsil, Bhopal, a village in Madhya Pradesh, India
- Kotra, Huzur tehsil, Bhopal, a village in Madhya Pradesh, India
- Kotra, Pakistan, a city in Pakistan
- Kotra River, a river in Belarus and Lithuania
KOTRA (Korea Trade Promotion Corporation initially, Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency since 1995) is a state-funded trade and investment promotion organization operated by the Government of South Korea. KOTRA was established in 1962 as a national trade promotion organization. Since then, it has facilitated Korea's rapid export-led economic development through various trade promotion activities such as overseas market surveys, SME export promotion,trade info services, government-to-gov't export,foreign investment in Korea(FDI) promotion and business matchmaking.