Pulau Pawai, also known as Alligator Island during the colonial times, is a

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

located within the

Singapore Armed Forces The Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) are the military of the Republic of Singapore, responsible for protecting and defending the security interests and the sovereignty of the country. A component of the Ministry of Defence (Singapore), Ministry of D ...

Live Firing Area. It is located off the southwestern coast of

Singapore Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, is an island country and city-state in Southeast Asia. The country's territory comprises one main island, 63 satellite islands and islets, and one outlying islet. It is about one degree ...

, between

Pulau Sudong Pulau Sudong (Malay for Sudong Island) is a coral island off the southern coast of Singapore. It was enlarged through a land reclamation process during the late 1970s, and is home to the Pulau Sudong Airport. Restricted area Since the early 19 ...

to its north and

Pulau Satumu Pulau Satumu ( Chinese: 沙都姆岛) is an islet to the south of the main Singapore island, and the southernmost island of Singapore. The Raffles Lighthouse is located on the island. The island's name means "One Tree Island"Victor R. Savage an ...

to its south. It is one of the three islands owned by the Singapore Armed Forces for

live firing exercise A live fire exercise (LFX) is a military exercise in which live ammunition and ordnance is used, as opposed to blanks or dummies. The term can also be found in non-military usage. Military Militaries usually use live-fire exercises as an op ...

s, the other two being Pulau Sudong and

Pulau Senang Pulau Senang is an coral island in the Republic of Singapore, located about off the southern coast of Singapore Island. Along with Pulau Pawai to the north-west and Pulau Sudong, further north from Pulau Pawai, it is used as a military train ...

Live Firing Area (Southern Islands)

Since 9 June 1989, the island together with

and

, these three islands formed the

southern islands

military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. Militaries are typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with their members identifiable by a d ...

training area and live-firing zone. As with all other military installations within the country, the entire live-firing zone is strictly off limits to all civilians at all times of the day and night. The island is used mainly as a practice range for live-ammunition bombing both from the air and the ground. The

Republic of Singapore Air Force The Republic of Singapore Air Force (RSAF) is the aerial service branch of the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) responsible for controlling and defending the airspace of the country, and providing air support to the Army and Navy. It was establis ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

take turns to use it, with the Air Force practicing strafing and the Navy practicing shelling targets. Pawai's lush green and brown forests are mostly undisturbed and it has been found to have a rich biodiversity of

coral reefs A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of colonies of coral polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, whose polyps cluster in groups. ...

, especially

fringing reef A fringing reef is one of the three main types of coral reef. It is distinguished from the other main types, barrier reefs and atolls, in that it has either an entirely shallow backreef zone (lagoon) or none at all. If a fringing reef grows direc ...

Etymology

"Pawai" means cortège () or suite of the Raja, so presumably the retinue of the Raja stayed on this island.

Panorama

References

Pawai Pawai is a town and a nagar panchayat in the Panna district of Madhya Pradesh state in central India. Pawai is the administrative headquarters of Pawai tehsil, one of the largest tehsils of Panna district. Geography Pawai is at . It has an av ...

Western Islands Planning Area {{singapore-geo-stub