The Nicobar Islands are an archipelagic island chain in the eastern

Indian Ocean The Indian Ocean is the third-largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, covering or approximately 20% of the water area of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface. It is bounded by Asia to the north, Africa to the west and Australia (continent), ...

. They are located in

Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

, northwest of

Aceh Aceh ( , ; , Jawi script, Jawoë: ; Van Ophuijsen Spelling System, Old Spelling: ''Atjeh'') is the westernmost Provinces of Indonesia, province of Indonesia. It is located on the northern end of Sumatra island, with Banda Aceh being its capit ...

Sumatra Sumatra () is one of the Sunda Islands of western Indonesia. It is the largest island that is fully within Indonesian territory, as well as the list of islands by area, sixth-largest island in the world at 482,286.55 km2 (182,812 mi. ...

, and separated from

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

to the east by the

Andaman Sea The Andaman Sea (historically also known as the Burma Sea) is a marginal sea of the northeastern Indian Ocean bounded by the coastlines of Myanmar and Thailand along the Gulf of Martaban and the west side of the Malay Peninsula, and separated f ...

. Located southeast of the

Indian subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographic region of Asia below the Himalayas which projects into the Indian Ocean between the Bay of Bengal to the east and the Arabian Sea to the west. It is now divided between Bangladesh, India, and Pakista ...

, across the

Bay of Bengal The Bay of Bengal is the northeastern part of the Indian Ocean. Geographically it is positioned between the Indian subcontinent and the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese peninsula, located below the Bengal region. Many South Asian and Southe ...

, they are part of India, as the Nicobar district within the union territory of the

Andaman and Nicobar Islands The Andaman and Nicobar Islands is a union territory of India comprising 572 islands, of which only 38 are inhabited. The islands are grouped into two main clusters: the northern Andaman Islands and the southern Nicobar Islands, separated by a ...

. Together with the

Andaman Islands The Andaman Islands () are an archipelago, made up of 200 islands, in the northeastern Indian Ocean about southwest off the coasts of Myanmar's Ayeyarwady Region. Together with the Nicobar Islands to their south, the Andamans serve as a mari ...

to their north, the Nicobar Islands serve as a

maritime boundary A maritime boundary is a conceptual division of Earth's water surface areas using physiographical or geopolitical criteria. As such, it usually bounds areas of exclusive national rights over mineral and biological resources,VLIZ Maritime Boun ...

between the Bay of Bengal to the west and the Andaman Sea to the east.

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) with the aim of promoting world peace and International secur ...

has declared the Great Nicobar Island as one of the

World Network of Biosphere Reserves The UNESCO World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) covers internationally designated protected areas, known as biosphere or nature reserves, which are meant to demonstrate a balanced relationship between people and nature (e.g. encourage susta ...

.
The International Coordinating Council of UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB), added the following new sites to the World Network of Biosphere Reserves (WNBR) http://www.unesco.org/new/en/media-services/multimedia/photos/mab-2013/india/.

Geography

The Nicobar Islands cover a land area of and had a population of 36,844 during the 2011 Census of India, 2011 Census. They comprise three distinct groups: Northern Group: * Car Nicobar * Battimalv Central Group: * Chowra, Chaura or Sanenyo * Teressa or Luroo * Bompuka or Poahat * Katchal * Camorta * Trinket * Nancowry or Nancowrie *

Tillangchong Tillangchong, also known as Tillanchang, is an island and a Panchayati raj in India, village in the Nicobar district of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, India. Administration The island belongs to the Teressa Island, Teressa tehsil in Nancowry subdi ...

* Laouk or "Isle of Man" Southern Group (Sambelong): * Great Nicobar (, largest island of the Nicobars) * Kondul Island, located between Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar * Kabra Island, located between Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar * Little Nicobar * Pulo Milo or Pillomilo (Milo Island) * Menchal Island * Treis (Albatei) Island * Trak (Mafuya) Island * Meroe * Pigeon Island * Megapod Island Indira Point () is the southernmost point of Great Nicobar Island and also of India itself, lying about north of

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

Geology

The Nicobar Islands are part of a great

island arc Island arcs are long archipelago, chains of active volcanoes with intense earthquake, seismic activity found along convergent boundary, convergent plate tectonics, tectonic plate boundaries. Most island arcs originate on oceanic crust and have re ...

created by the collision of the Indo-Australian Plate with

Eurasia Eurasia ( , ) is a continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. According to some geographers, Physical geography, physiographically, Eurasia is a single supercontinent. The concept of Europe and Asia as distinct continents d ...

. The collision lifted the

Himalayas The Himalayas, or Himalaya ( ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than list of h ...

and most of the Indonesian islands, and created a long arc of highlands and islands, which includes the Arakan Yoma range of

Burma Myanmar, officially the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; and also referred to as Burma (the official English name until 1989), is a country in northwest Southeast Asia. It is the largest country by area in Mainland Southeast Asia and ha ...

, the Andaman and Nicobar islands, and the islands off the west coast of

, including the Banyak Islands and the

Mentawai Islands Mentawai may refer to: * Mentawai Islands, Indonesia ** Mentawai Strait ** Mentawai people, ethnic group of Indonesia ** Mentawai language, their Austronesian language {{dab Language and nationality disambiguation pages ...

Climate

The climate is warm and tropical, with temperatures ranging from . Rainfall is heavy due to annual monsoons and measures around each year.

Ecology

The Nicobar Islands are recognised as a distinct

terrestrial ecoregion An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecological and geographic area that exists on multiple different levels, defined by type, quality, and quantity of environmental resources. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and c ...

, the Nicobar Islands rain forests, with many

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found only in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also foun ...

species. The vegetation of the Nicobars is typically divided into the coastal

mangrove A mangrove is a shrub or tree that grows mainly in coastal saline water, saline or brackish water. Mangroves grow in an equatorial climate, typically along coastlines and tidal rivers. They have particular adaptations to take in extra oxygen a ...

forests and the interior evergreen and deciduous

tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests (TSMF), also known as tropical moist forest, is a subtropical and tropical forest habitat type defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Description TSMF is generally found in la ...

. Additionally, several islands contain extensive inland

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominance (ecology), dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes such as clover, and other Herbaceo ...

s, though these are thought to have resulted from human intervention. As a result of lower sea levels during the

ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...

s, the Andaman Islands were linked to the Southeast Asian mainland, but it is not believed that the Nicobar Islands ever had a land bridge to the continent. Lower sea levels did link the islands to one another: Great Nicobar and Little Nicobar were linked to each other, and Nancowry, Chaura, Katchall, Trinka, Camorta, and the nearby smaller islands were linked to one another as well.

Protected areas

Protected areas include Campbell Bay National Park and Galathea National Park on Great Nicobar. A World Biosphere Reserve was declared on Grand Nicobar by

on May 31, 2013. Great Nicobar Biosphere Reserve has a total area of . The core area of comprises Cambell Bay and Galathea National Parks. A buffer area of includes lands adjacent to and between the two parks. There is also a transitional area of , including .

Population

The islands had a population of 36,842 in 2011. The indigenous ethnic groups are the Nicobarese and the Shompen. Local languages include Shompen and the languages of the tin Nicobarese group.

History

Prehistory

The Nicobar Islands are believed to have been inhabited for thousands of years. Six indigenous Nicobarese languages are spoken on the islands, which are part of the Austroasiatic language family, which includes the Mon, Khmer, and Vietnamese languages of

, and the

Munda languages The Munda languages are a group of closely related languages spoken by about eleven million people in India, Bangladesh and Nepal. Historically, they have been called the Kolarian languages. They constitute a branch of the Austroasiatic langu ...

of India. An indigenous tribe living at the southern tip of Great Nicobar called the Shompen, may be of

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

Southeast Asian origin.

Origin of the name

The earliest extant references to the name "Nicobar" is in the

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

Pali Pāli (, IAST: pāl̤i) is a Classical languages of India, classical Middle Indo-Aryan languages, Middle Indo-Aryan language of the Indian subcontinent. It is widely studied because it is the language of the Buddhist ''Pali Canon, Pāli Can ...

Buddhist Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

chronicles, the '' Dipavamsa'' (c. 3rd or 4th century CE) and the '' Mahavamsa'' (c. 4th or 5th century), which state that the children of the followers of the legendary founder of the Sri Lankan Kingdom, Vijaya, landed on ''Naggadipa'' (the island of the children, from the Pali nagga meaning 'naked'). In the ninth century, the Persian explorer Abū Zayd al-Sīrāfī referred to the Nicobar Islands as Lanjabālūs. The modern name is likely derived from the

Chola dynasty The Chola dynasty () was a Tamil dynasty originating from Southern India. At its height, it ruled over the Chola Empire, an expansive maritime empire. The earliest datable references to the Chola are from inscriptions dated to the 3rd cen ...

name for the islands, ''Nakkavaram'' (may be referring to open/naked land or naked man's land in

Tamil Tamil may refer to: People, culture and language * Tamils, an ethno-linguistic group native to India, Sri Lanka, and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka ** Myanmar or Burmese Tamils, Tamil people of Ind ...

) which is inscribed on the

Thanjavur Thanjavur (), also known as Thanjai, previously known as Tanjore, Pletcher 2010, p. 195 is a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the 12th biggest city in Tamil Nadu. Thanjavur is an important center of southern Indian religion, art ...

(Tanjore) inscription of 1050 CE.

Marco Polo Marco Polo (; ; ; 8 January 1324) was a Republic of Venice, Venetian merchant, explorer and writer who travelled through Asia along the Silk Road between 1271 and 1295. His travels are recorded in ''The Travels of Marco Polo'' (also known a ...

(12th-13th century) also referred to this island as 'Necuverann'. In the 15th century, Great Nicobar Island was recorded as "Cui Lan island" (翠蘭嶼) during the

voyages of Zheng He The Ming treasure voyages were maritime expeditions undertaken by Ming dynasty, Ming China's Chinese treasure fleet, treasure fleet between 1405 and 1433. The Yongle Emperor ordered the construction of the fleet in 1403. The grand project resu ...

in the

Mao Kun map Mao Kun map, usually referred to in modern Chinese sources as Zheng He's Navigation Map (), is a set of navigation charts published in the Ming dynasty military treatise '' Wubei Zhi''. The book was compiled by in 1621 and published in 1628; the ...

of the Wu Bei Zhi.

Colonial period

Organised European

colonisation 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...

on the islands began with the

Danish East India Company The Danish East India Company () refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered company, chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-founde ...

in 1754/56. During this time they were administered from Tranquebar (in continental

Danish India Danish India () was the name given to the forts and Factory (trading post), factories of Denmark (Denmark–Norway before 1814) in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions ...

) under the name of Frederiksøerne. Missionaries from the

Moravian Church The Moravian Church, or the Moravian Brethren ( or ), formally the (Latin: "Unity of the Brethren"), is one of the oldest Protestant denominations in Christianity, dating back to the Bohemian Reformation of the 15th century and the original ...

Brethren's settlement in Tranquebar attempted a settlement on Nancowry and died in great numbers from disease. The islands were repeatedly abandoned due to outbreaks of

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

: 1784–1807/09, 1830–1834, and finally from 1848 gradually for good. Between 1778 and 1783, William Bolts attempted to establish an Austrian colony on the islands on the mistaken assumption that

Denmark–Norway Denmark–Norway (Danish language, Danish and Norwegian language, Norwegian: ) is a term for the 16th-to-19th-century multi-national and multi-lingual real unionFeldbæk 1998:11 consisting of the Kingdom of Denmark, the Kingdom of Norway (includ ...

had abandoned its claims to the islands.

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

attempted to buy the Nicobar Islands from Denmark between 1864 and 1865. The Italian Minister of Agriculture and Commerce

Luigi Torelli Luigi Torelli (9 February 1810 – 14 November 1887) was born in Villa di Tirano, in the Valtellina of Lombardy, at the time part of the Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy. Being a patriot, he took part in the Five Days of Milan, most noted in drivin ...

started a negotiation that looked promising but failed due to the unexpected end of his office and the second La Marmora Cabinet. The negotiations were interrupted and never brought up again.

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

's presence in the islands ended formally on 16 October 1868 when it sold the rights to the Nicobar Islands to the UK, which, in 1869, made them part of

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

Second World War

During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, the islands were invaded and occupied by Japan between 1942 and 1945. In May 1945, shelled Japanese positions on the islands. The British regained possession of the islands after the

Surrender of Japan The surrender of the Empire of Japan in World War II was Hirohito surrender broadcast, announced by Emperor Hirohito on 15 August and formally Japanese Instrument of Surrender, signed on 2 September 1945, End of World War II in Asia, ending ...

announced on 15 August and formally signed on 2 September 1945. After the war, Pakistani politician Choudhry Rahmat Ali proposed that the Nicobars (which he called the "Balus Islands") would have a sizeable Muslim population and thus would be integrated to the Dominion of

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

. This never materialised.

Indian union territory

Together with the

, it became part of India in 1950 and was declared as a

union territory Among the states and union territories of India, a Union Territory (UT) is a region that is directly governed by the Government of India, central government of India, as opposed to the states, which have their own State governments of India, s ...

of the nation in 1956.

26 December 2004 tsunami

On 26 December 2004, the coast of the Nicobar Islands was devastated by a

tsunami A tsunami ( ; from , ) 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 underwater explosions (including detonations, ...

following the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time (UTC+07:00, UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicenter, epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The Submarine earthquake, undersea ...

. At least 6,000 people were killed on the

with reports putting the death toll on Katchal Island alone at 4,600. Several islands were heavily damaged with initial reports of islands broken in two or three pieces and coral reefs moved above water. Teressa Island was said to have been split into two pieces and Trinkat Island into three pieces. Some estimates said that the islands were moved as much as by the earthquake and tilted.

Indira Point Indira Point, the southernmost point of India's territory, is a village in the Nicobar district at Great Nicobar Island of Andaman and Nicobar Islands in India. It is located in the Great Nicobar tehsil. Rondo Island, Indonesia's northernmos ...

subsided and the lighthouse there was damaged.

Transportation

* Airport: Car Nicobar has an airstrip on Car Nicobar Air Force Base of on the South East coast near Malacca but does not offer commercial service. Great Nicobar has a small airstrip of approximately at Campbell Bay/Tenlaa on its East Coast. * Seaport: At least one small shipping dock is located in Campbell Bay on the East coast of Great Nicobar. Car Nicobar has a small dock at its Northern tip near Keating Point and Mus.

References

External links

*
WorldStatesmen- India
{{Authority control Nicobar Archipelagoes of the Indian Ocean Archipelagoes of Southeast Asia Islands of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Archipelagoes of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Bay of Bengal British India Danish India 1750s in Danish India Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests Maritime Southeast Asia Regions of India States and territories established in 1950 Pleistocene volcanoes Volcanoes of India Archipelagoes of India 1754 establishments in the Danish colonial empire 1868 establishments in the British Empire